Ajay Shah

[Ajay Shah @ItsAjayShah]

There was something padded and posed about Schiller. He sat rigidly behind his desk, about seventy, with clear blue eyes in a pink face. Silver hair was brushed back from a narrow forehead.

Red Square- Martin Cruz Smith

[Ajay Shah @ItsAjayShah]

Better fed, he looked around with more attention. The Poles, he noticed, had suits, no ties and the expression of aristocrats temporarily short of funds. The Romanians chose a round table, the better to conspire. Americans sat alone and wrote postcards like dutiful tourists.

[Ajay Shah @ItsAjayShah]

When Stas lit the cigarette for her, Ludmilla leaned forward and closed her eyes. When she opened them, they were on Arkady. 'A visitor from Moscow?' she asked.

Red Square- Martin Cruz Smith

[Ajay Shah @ItsAjayShah]

Happy birthday dear Mom :)

[Ajay Shah @ItsAjayShah]

tum na paaoge sada dil mujhsa
jo tagaful ko bhi haya jaane

dil ko kya ho gaya khuda jaane
kyun hai aisa udaas kya jaane

-Momin, Zauq, Jigar Moradabadi, Mir Taqi Mir, Daag Dehlavi

[Ajay Shah @ItsAjayShah]

na maza hai dushmani mein, na hai lutf dosti mein
koi ghair ghair hota koi yaar yaar hota

- Daagh Dehlvi

[Ajay Shah @ItsAjayShah]

Listening to:

https://t.co/Mbs0dVCXxE

[Ajay Shah @ItsAjayShah]

Alone, Arkady sat on the windowsill and had a solitary cigarette. It was a Russian custom to sit before embarking on a trip, so why not on arrival?

Red Square

[Ajay Shah @ItsAjayShah]

Platonov was in his mid-sixties, Arkady guessed. A diplomat since Brezhnev? That took a man of both rubber and steel.

Red Square

[Ajay Shah @ItsAjayShah]

Platonov had the forward hunch of a chess player.
He looked like a man with a problem, something nasty but not too large, something he could resolve in a day or two.

Red Square

[Ajay Shah @ItsAjayShah]

Inside was a man with grey hair, a good Western suit and a frown.
There were only two chairs in the room and he nodded for Arkady to take the other one.

Red Square

[Ajay Shah @ItsAjayShah]

He opened the windows. The rain had stopped, leaving weepy stains around the windows of the courtyard. The skyline was a ring of damp chimneypots upraised like spades. Perfect weather for a funeral.

Red Square- Martin Cruz Smith

[Ajay Shah @ItsAjayShah]

Every home had a few classics just to prove literacy.

Red Square

[Ajay Shah @ItsAjayShah]

Sooner or later a flat fitted a man like a shell. He might be gone, but his outline stayed in a worn chair, a photo, a crust of food, a forgotten letter, in the smell of hope or despair.

Red Square

[Ajay Shah @ItsAjayShah]

At the bar, the waitress dug under her apron for a lighter, lit a cigarette and exhaled with a sensuality that hooded her eyes. Arkady envied her.

Red Square- Martin Cruz Smith

[Ajay Shah @ItsAjayShah]

There were two different psychological types, Arkady thought: weightlifters were soloists of grunts, while wrestlers couldn't wait to get tangled.

Red Square- Martin Cruz Smith

[Ajay Shah @ItsAjayShah]

Master of Sport Antonov gave the impression of a man whose brains had long since been pounded into more solid stuff.
He had a grey crewcut and flat, utilitarian features, and in his fists, so knotted that he seemed to have extra knuckles, he held a bell mallet and a watch.

[Ajay Shah @ItsAjayShah]

It occurred to Arkady that cars were not meant for Russians. First of all, Russians didn't have enough roads free of frost heaves and mud wallows.
More important, vehicles capable of any speed should not be placed in the hands of people given to vodka and melancholy.

Red Square

[Ajay Shah @ItsAjayShah]

Dil ko kya ho gaya khuda jaane
kyoon hai aisa udaas kya jaane

keh diya maine haal-e-dil apnaa
isko tum jaano ya khuda jaane

jaante jaante hi jaanega
mujhme kya hai abhi wo kya jaane

tum na paaoge sada dil mujhsa
jo tagaful ko bhi hayaa jaane

-Daagh Dehlvi

[Ajay Shah @ItsAjayShah]

https://t.co/TFFDCscf74