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A woman Eggers meets after setting up the Might magazine office in a “filthy corner of a shaky warehouse” where the rent is only $250 a month. Shalini also works in this warehouse, helping “with just Go!, a tiny ecotravel magazine.” She also produces her own publication, Hum, which is “dedicated to uniting and speaking for/to/from twentysomethings of the South Asian American persuasion.” Shalini becomes a close workplace friend to Eggers and Moodie, giving them “semi-erotic during-work backrubs,” though their relationship with her remains platonic. One night, Shalini is at a party on a deck that collapses. The accident kills a number of people, but she survives. Having landed on her head, she goes into a coma. Upon hearing the news, Eggers begins visiting Shalini quite often. Finally, after months, she wakes up and is able to resume her life, though her short-term memory remains impaired.
Shalini Malhotra Quotes in A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius
The A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius quotes below are all either spoken by Shalini Malhotra or refer to Shalini Malhotra. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 9
Quotes
While the ill are ill, if you can be there you should be there. I know these things. Bizarre, self-sacrificing gestures are important. On days that you cannot possibly come visit, you must visit. When you get home one night, and Toph says, “So, are you going to pretend to be a parent tonight, or what?”—which he means as a kind of joke, because you two have been eating fast food for weeks, and you’ve been napping on the couch every night after dinner—you should take a breath and know that this is okay, that this sort of thing, this struggle and sacrifice, is essential, that he does not understand but someday will.
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Explanation and Analysis:
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Shalini Malhotra Quotes in A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius
The A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius quotes below are all either spoken by Shalini Malhotra or refer to Shalini Malhotra. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 9
Quotes
While the ill are ill, if you can be there you should be there. I know these things. Bizarre, self-sacrificing gestures are important. On days that you cannot possibly come visit, you must visit. When you get home one night, and Toph says, “So, are you going to pretend to be a parent tonight, or what?”—which he means as a kind of joke, because you two have been eating fast food for weeks, and you’ve been napping on the couch every night after dinner—you should take a breath and know that this is okay, that this sort of thing, this struggle and sacrifice, is essential, that he does not understand but someday will.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
