She gave the impression that she had somehow slipped off her leash. As though she was taking herself for a walk while the rest of us were being walke… - Arundhati Roy

The nuclear tests were a way to shore up our flagging self-esteem. India is still flinching from a cultural insult, still looking for its identity. It's about all that.

The moment I saw her, a part of me walked out of my body and wrapped itself around her. And there it still remains. (p156)

When the twins asked what cuff-links were for — “To link cuffs together,” Ammu told them — they were thrilled by this morsel of logic in what had so far seemed an illogical language. Cuff+link = cuff-link. This, to them, rivaled the precision of logic and mathematics. Cuff-links gave them an inordinate (if exaggerated) satisfaction, and a real affection for the English language.