- Nambi Narayanan: [after being told he has made his advisor's wife smile for the first time in years] We Indian husbands are like that. We always make our woman smile. You know about our population, right?
- A.P.J. Abdul Kalam: [implying that something is being done prematurely] He is fixing selling price of ghee before buying the cow.
- Nambi Narayanan: I'm going only to the temple nearby. You think I'm off to Mars or what?
- Meena Narayanan: Mars is sure to have less potholes than the roads in Trivandrum.
- Nambi Narayanan: For us Indians who have to walk for 2 km to get 3 liters of drinking water, and use it between the two of us for 3 days, nothing is quite impossible.
- Nambi Narayanan: I'm going to the temple.
- Meena Narayanan: Don't jinx it. How many times I've told you to say 'I will be back'?
- Professor Chockmark: [lecturing in class] So this behavioral pattern inside the shock tube is due to the upstream flow of fluids...
- Nambi Narayanan: Downstream, sir.
- Professor Chockmark: Excuse me?
- Nambi Narayanan: Sir, this behavioral pattern is only possible when the fluid is, uh, flowing downstream in the shock tube.
- Professor Chockmark: Great. Now we and Ascher Shapiro have to learn from an Indian rookie. And your name is?
- Nambi Narayanan: Sir, my name is Nambi Narayanan.
- Professor Chockmark: So, Nambi. Let's say you're right. I'm only human. I can make mistakes. But are you saying Ascher Shapiro's textbook is inaccurate?
- [the professor tosses the textbook onto Nambi's desk]
- Nambi Narayanan: Yes, sir, it's inaccurate.
- Professor Chockmark: [sarcastically] Oh, well, then, why don't you write to Ascher Shapiro? Tell him to correct it, according to you. He'll be very glad to hear from you, Numbu.
- Nambi Narayanan: Okay, sir. Maybe I'll just do that. Thank you for your suggestion.
- [Nambi gives back the textbook and leaves the classroom]
- Nambi Narayanan: [after being asked to wait for 2 seconds] Your 2 seconds are over.
- Self (Guest Appearance): Sorry, sir. You will know the value of a second much more than any of us. We'll start immediately.
- Mrs. Cleaver: [after Nambi expresses gratitude for a large donation of equipment from a British company to India] Oh, save it, Nambi. It was probably built from money procured from India.
- Unni: Sir, the ruckus you created to get me here, like smearing the bull's butt with 'chunam' paste to make it run faster in a rekla race.
- Param: Remember what the French taught us when we visited the Monet museum. Take a few steps back and look at the painting from a distance. Only then can we appreciate its true beauty.
- Nambi Narayanan: So how long was your tenure in India?
- Col. Cleaver: Well, it was long enough for the imperialist guilt to weigh heavy upon my heart. I've often wished there was something I could do in my own small way to... to make amends.
- Nambi Narayanan: I don't know about then. But I do know of a way now. Colonel Cleaver, it's a well-known fact that European rocketry proram is on a slow burn because the U.S. is undertaking all your rocketry responsibilities. Which also means that the hydraulic plant and all the equipment I saw today will all be rendered useless and dysfunctional because you'll have to move the plant. And what a tragedy that'll be. But what is a setback for you, could transcend 10 years of research for us in India. So I want to make an outrageous request. Give us the hydraulic plant and all the equipment. I know as a nation we can't afford to pay you a dime. But we'll be forever indebted to you.
- Mrs. Cleaver: You do know what you are asking for is 400 million pounds worth of equipment.
- Nambi Narayanan: Even as I said it, I realized how ridiculous I sounded. I'm so sorry. Please forget I asked.
- Mrs. Cleaver: [turning to Col. Cleaver] On the other hand, darling, he isn't asking for the Kohinoor.
- Meena Narayanan: [implying that something is obvious] If you can't notice a cow in broad daylight, what is the use of being able to see?
- Vikram A Sarabhai (Tamil: You know, your obsession, your passion, perseverance, your anger, your impatience may one day dangle like a sword of Damocles. But these very same qualities will place a crown over your head too. Whatever happens, don't ever relinquish your vision.
- Col. Cleaver: There was one night in Bombay. I was relishing the... the local food on the beach. Good on the eyes, great on the palate. By the end of the night, I didn't know from which end I was whistling louder.
- Col. Cleaver: It was our mistake, back then. Breaking you up into India, Pakistan. What do you know? The domino effect goes on. Now you've got Bangladesh.
- P M Nayar: Why has no one from ISRO come to your aid? Nobody has even come and seen you so far in jail. Why?
- Nambi Narayanan: I don't know, sir. Maybe scientists are strange people. They know exactly how to react when a rocket fails. Maybe they don't know how to react when a man collapses.
- Nambi Narayanan: So are you ready to take on the French, Unni?
- Unni: The lime paste has already been smeared on my butt, sir. Just watch me sprint.
- Barry Amaldev: [to Nambi] There should be a photograph of you in the Oxford dictionary, right next to the definition of the word 'patriotism.'
- P M Nayar: [referring to police who had interrogated Nambi] They had no business questioning you.
- Nambi Narayanan: Questioning me? They weren't here to question me. They wanted to beat a confession out of me for a crime I didn't commit.
- Alexander Dunayev: Nambi, you are a dangerous man. This is extremely classified information. How did you get access to it?
- Nambi Narayanan: If I tell you that, you will die, and I will die.
- Self (Guest Appearance): To offer words of solace, I'm totally at a loss. Not as an actor or hero, as an ordinary citizen, as a human being, I want to do this for you. To do this on behalf of our entire nation. I don't know if I have the right or eligibility, but I can't be without doing this. Nambi, sir. On behalf of our people, I ask forgiveness for the way we treated you, for all the due honors we did not shower on you, I ask forgiveness for everything. Please forgive us.
- Real Nambi Narayanan: Sir, I understand your good intentions, and I am grateful for it. But please don't make this grand apology. If you offer an apology ever so magnanimously, and I accept it, it will create a false sense of closure. But it doesn't fix or change anything. I can't come to terms with that, and so I cannot accept your apology. Mr. Suriya, if I am innocent, then isn't somebody else guilty? The question is who? A befitting answer has to be found for this question of mine.
- Self (Guest Appearance): If it is decided to pelt a dog and kill it, all that is required is to label it a rabid dog. In the same way, the intention was to prevent you from holding your head high. Defaming you as a traitor will do the trick. That's the reward you got.
- Real Nambi Narayanan: If those who have dedicated their lives for their nation's progress... are not respected or cherished, no such nation has become a superpower in our annals of history.
- Nambi Narayanan: If someone had asked me who would have been my first visitor in jail, I would have never guessed it would've been you in a thousand years. How are you doing, Mr. Unni? Congratulations, Mr. Unni. The state you were yearning to see me in, I am standing right in front of you, fulfilling your wish. Beaten, disheveled and in soiled clothes, broken spirit, family humiliated, career in shambles. Look, I've peed in my pant. No bladder control. And on top of it all, branded as a traitor. But you know what? What you went through because of me... You are justified in seeing me in this state, rightfully so. And for Mr. Unni, I am willing to stand here for as long as you want. Feast your eyes.
- Unni: How I would extract revenge for what you did to me... is something I have thought of every single day in my life. Because you lack basic human kindness, temerity from head to toe, a mean, law unto your self, selfish son of a bitch, monster even. But even then, in my worst dreams, I couldn't have imagined seeing you like this. But whatever you are, Mr. Nambi Narayanan, from my unfortunate personal experience, I know, you just cannot betray our nation. It is a shame beyond words... no one visited you in jail so far. Now that I am here, tell me what needs to be done to get you out of here. Because in this room, if you think you are the only patriot here, you are making a mistake once more.
- [they shake hands]
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