Moderate

In what perfection [Indian] music stands (as I am no competent judge), I could never give my ears the trouble to examine, it seeming loud and barbarous; yet they observe time and measure in their singing and dancing, and are mightily delighted with their tumbling and noise. They as much dislike our shriller music, hardly allowing our waits fit to play to bears, and our stringed instruments strike not their hard-to-be-raised fancies; but our organs are the music of the spheres with them, charming them to listen as long as they play.

Had I not been a classical singer, I would have loved to spend my entire life in a garage fine-tuning a Fiat or a Maruti.

Thank you. If you appreciate the tuning so much, I hope you will enjoy the playing more.

The Caste System is not merely a division of labour. It is also a division of labourers.

If we wish to maintain democracy not merely in form, but also in fact, what must we do? The first thing in my judgement we must do is to hold fast to constitutional methods of achieving our social and economic objectives. It means we must abandon the bloody methods of revolution. It means that we must abandon the method of civil disobedience, non-cooperation and satyagraha. When there was no way left for constitutional methods for achieving economic and social objectives, there was a great deal of justification for unconstitutional methods.

The India I love does not make the headlines. But I find it wherever I go — in field or forest, town or village, mountain or desert — and in the hearts and minds of people who have given me love and affection for the better part of a lifetime.