Major Rama Safti Quotes in The Rains Came (1939)

Major Rama Safti: [translating Hindu song] "Would my lyre were of jade, its strings of pure-spun gold, that I might sing with merit of your beauty... in your heart my love has found a home, and it can never die..."

Major Rama Safti: The world's not as bad as you think, Tom.

Thomas 'Tom' Ransome: No? Only trying to commit suicide as fast as it knows how.

Major Rama Safti: I don't agree with you. Here in Ranchipur we're trying to make it a little better.

Thomas 'Tom' Ransome: The whole world?

Major Rama Safti: OUR world - India in general, Ranchipur in particular.

Thomas 'Tom' Ransome: I rather like the old place, just as it is.

Major Rama Safti: You see it as an artist. I see it as an Indian. My people are crying for help. After centuries of disease and poverty and superstition.

Lady Edwina Esketh: What would you prescribe for a patient about to die of galloping boredom?

Major Rama Safti: Well, I imagine that the Maharani will see to it that you're properly entertained.

Lady Edwina Esketh: How?

Major Rama Safti: Well, the usual routine with guests, I believe, is to show them first the waterworks, then, in order, the narrow gauge railway, the hospital, the zoo, and the asylum for the insane.

Lady Edwina Esketh: [slight sarcasm] How exciting.

Major Rama Safti: Yes, isn't it?

Maharani: [Major Safti has just been handed an important note] What is it, Major?

Major Rama Safti: It has come sooner than I expected: several cases of the plague in the Sweepers Quarters. On top of that, half the water in Ranchipur must be polluted.

Maharani: Do what you can to keep the plague from spreading. Burn down the whole Quarter if you must.