[commenting on the battle] ‘And my husband?’ Tirumalamba Devi cried. ‘What about the king?’ Pampa Kampana fell silent and put her hands up her face. ‘The king?’ Tirumalamba Devi shouted. ‘Pampa Kampana, what news?’ ‘Alas, the king is old,' Pampa Kampana wailed. ‘He is old and the battle is long. He has been up on that elephant a long time.’ ‘What has happened?’ Tirumalamba Devi cried. ‘Tell me at once!’ ‘Alas for us all, my queen,’ Pampa Kampana wept through sightless eyes. ‘The king... the king... needed to piss.’ ‘To piss? Pampa Kampana, you speak of piss?’

— Victory City by Salman Rushdie (Page 364)