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Anjum / Aftab
A mysterious, dark-skinned, South Indian woman who seemingly has no past, no caste, and no family, Tilo is a highly independent and secretive character. As a young woman, she is an architecture student and performs in a play with Biplab, Naga, and Musa, and all three young men become enamored of her. She only has eyes for Musa, though, and is an on-and-off lover of his until the day he dies. It is while she is visiting Musa in Kashmir one day that Tilo is taken into custody by the Indian army and is nearly tortured. However, while in custody, she remembers that Biplab is now a successful bureaucrat, and sends a message to him via the soldiers. He sends Naga to go and take her away from the prison, and after this, she marries Naga—not because she loves him, but because she needs cover now that she is involved with Musa, who is a sought-after member of the Kashmiri resistance. Once her marriage with Naga ends, Tilo moves into an apartment that Biplab owns, and informally adopts a baby she finds abandoned at the Jantar Mantar protests. She names the baby Miss Jebeen the Second after Miss Jebeen, Musa’s daughter who died in a massacre in Kashmir. With Miss Jebeen the Second, Tilo goes to Jannat Guest House and Funeral Services to seek refuge, where she becomes a teacher at an informal school.
Tilo Quotes in The Ministry of Utmost Happiness
The The Ministry of Utmost Happiness quotes below are all either spoken by Tilo or refer to Tilo. 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 8
Quotes
“I would like to write one of those sophisticated stories in which even though nothing much happens there’s lots to write about. That can’t be done in Kashmir. It’s not sophisticated, what happens here. There’s too much blood for good literature.”
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Chapter 9
Quotes
“If that fool didn’t know how to live here with the military, why did he have to come into this world in the first place?”
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She described how, when her brother’s body was found in a field and brought home, his fists, clenched in rigor mortis, were full of earth and yellow mustard flowers grew from between his fingers.
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Chapter 10
Quotes
So all in all, with a People’s Pool, a People’s Zoo and a People’s School, things were going well in the old graveyard. The same, however, could not be said of the Duniya.
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Chapter 12
Quotes
How
to
tell
a
shattered
story?
By
slowly
becoming
everybody.
No.
By slowly becoming everything.
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Explanation and Analysis:
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Tilo Quotes in The Ministry of Utmost Happiness
The The Ministry of Utmost Happiness quotes below are all either spoken by Tilo or refer to Tilo. 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 8
Quotes
“I would like to write one of those sophisticated stories in which even though nothing much happens there’s lots to write about. That can’t be done in Kashmir. It’s not sophisticated, what happens here. There’s too much blood for good literature.”
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 9
Quotes
“If that fool didn’t know how to live here with the military, why did he have to come into this world in the first place?”
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
She described how, when her brother’s body was found in a field and brought home, his fists, clenched in rigor mortis, were full of earth and yellow mustard flowers grew from between his fingers.
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Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 10
Quotes
So all in all, with a People’s Pool, a People’s Zoo and a People’s School, things were going well in the old graveyard. The same, however, could not be said of the Duniya.
Related Characters:
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Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 12
Quotes
How
to
tell
a
shattered
story?
By
slowly
becoming
everybody.
No.
By slowly becoming everything.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
