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Kamala Markandaya

Kamala Markandaya Books

Novelist

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“They may live in our midst but I can never accept them, for they lay their hands upon us and we are all turned from tilling to barter, and hoard our silver since we cannot spend it, and see our children go without food that their children gorge, and it is only in the hope that one day things will be as they were that we have done these things. Now that they have gone let us forget them and return to our ways." "Foolish woman," Nathan said. "There is no going back.”

PovertyFarmingCity Life
Book:Nectar in a Sieve
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“Hope, and fear. Twin forces that tugged at us first in one direction and then in another, and which was the stronger no one could say. Of the latter we never spoke, but it was always with us. Fear, constant companion of the peasant. Hunger, ever at hand to jog his elbow should he relax. Despair, ready to engulf him should he falter. Fear; fear of the dark future; fear of the sharpness of hunger; fear of the blackness of death.”

ShouldFirstsHandsForceDarkPovertyReadyDespairStrongerConstantHungerRelaxLatterSpokesCompanionTwinsPeasantsBlacknessElbowsOne DirectionHopes And FearsSharpness
Book:Nectar in a sieve and related readings
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“To those who live by the land there must always come times of hardship, of fear and of hunger, even as there are years of plenty. This is one of the truths of our existence as those who live by the land know: that sometimes we eat and sometimes we starve. We live by our labours fromone harvest to the next, there is no certain telling whether we shall be able to feed ourselves and our children, and if bad times are prolonged we know we must see the weak surrender their lives and this fact, too, is within our experience. In our lives there is no margin for misfortune.”

IfsKnowsYearsChildrenSometimesFactsAbleCertainNextExistenceOur LivesLandWeakOur ChildrenHungerSurrenderPlentyLabourLive ByHardshipMisfortunesHarvestMarginsBad Times
Author:Kamala Markandaya
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