Quotes from book
Narcopolis

Name: Narcopolis
Author: Jeet Thayil

Narcopolis, the debut novel of Indian author Jeet Thayil, is set in 1970s Old Bombay. It concerns opium and its influence. The novel's narrator arrives in Bombay, where he becomes seduced into the opium underground. The story expands to encompass such characters as Dimple, the eunuch, Rashid, the opium house's owner, and Mr Lee, a former Chinese officer, all of whom have stories to tell.

“He read because it gave him instant gratification in a way nothing else did, and, as was the case with all addicts, gratification was the important thing. He liked history, travel, anthropology, cookbooks (which he read in the same way as other books for pleasure); he liked books with specialized information.”

Jeet Thayil book Narcopolis

Source: Narcopolis, p. 202

“…body with a concomitant object of gratification, the desire for immortality is in itself the evidence of immortality, as is the existence of its sister state, immutability.”

Jeet Thayil book Narcopolis

Source: Narcopolis, p. 155

“My religion is no way of knowing me. Mine is a way of knowing me. When I pray I feel I'm doing something clean. But why pray so the whole neighbourhood hears your prayers? Why use microphones?”

Jeet Thayil book Narcopolis

Source: Narcopolis, p. 174

“Then there are the addicts, the hunger addicts, the rage addicts, the poverty addicts, and power addicts, and the pure addicts who are addicted not to substances but to the oblivion and the tenderness the substances engender. An addict, if you don't mind me saying so, is like a saint. What is a saint but someone who has cut himself off, voluntarily, from the world's traffic and currency.”

Jeet Thayil book Narcopolis

In:p.36
Narcopolis