"A friend from Hong Kong had turned up in Bombay and took me to an opium den in Crawford Market. I walked in and saw this room with three pipes. Everything happened at floor level. It was like a bubble: Bombay noise and heat out there, 19th-century people lying and smoking in here, absolutely self-contained. I couldn’t look at that and not think of it as a piece of literary installation art. I walked in the door and I was hooked. I smoked that day, and loved it and went back. A month or so later I got an aerogramme from my friend saying, “Jeet, get your ass out of that den.”"
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
Imported from EN Wikiquote
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Jeet_Thayil
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Jeet Thayil
Jeet Thayil (born October 13, 1959) is an Indian poet, novelist, librettist and musician. He is most famous as a poet and is the author of four collections. His first novel, Narcopolis, which won the DSC Prize for South Asian Literature, was also shortlisted for the 2012 Man Booker Prize and the Hindu Literary Prize.
28 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Jeet Thayil →
Related Quotes
"it came pretty late In a sense it is good. It won’t get over my head."
"Yet, this is a small price I have had to pay for seeking to uphold the freedom of speech and expression."
"I was born in the south of India but I've never lived there. I went to school in Bombay, and in Hong Kong and in New …"
"Because that's where I live, and have lived for a few years now. I wouldn't say in food tastes, for instance, that I'…"
"It had people from all over the country and the world. The great thing about Bombay as a city was it was a magnet for…"
"It would be nice if things changed in the sense that they became more cosmopolitan, more inclusive, wider rather than…"
"I could feel my colour. I could feel racism...in the way people looked at you, and the way they talked to you. Now, t…"
"You may lose something, but you gain a double perspective, a double vision. Especially in terms of writing, or in ter…"
"A lot of people misspelt the title of the book and called it Necropolis, but I’m fine with that, because the title is…"
"Women are more evolved biologically and emotionally, that’s well known and it’s obvious. But they confuse sex and the…"