Sorcerer's apprentice by Shah Tahir

Author:Shah, Tahir [Shah, Tahir]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Shah, Tahir, Magicians, Occultism, Swindlers and swindling, Hindus
Publisher: New York : Arcade Pub., : Distributed by Time Warner Trade Pub
Published: 2001-03-25T19:00:00+00:00

sorcerer's apprentice

reused. Nothing is ever thrown away after one use . . . nothing, that is, except for bharh, the minuscule bisque cups. Little bigger than thimbles, they fill every gutter. Calcuttans laugh hysterically when the mad foreigner suggests reusing them. To me, the cups were dainty objects of art. To Venky, and everyone else, they were the most worthless things around.

'Sahib/ the hckshawalla said, 'you were sended to me!'

'What are you talking about, Venky? I found you all by myself. No one knows about you . . . you're my secret weapon.'

But the hckshawalla had more to say:

'No, Sahib, you no understanding! You were sended to me by angels . . . from Heaven!'

Venky was obviously drunk.

'I thought you were sober,' I said. 'You should know better than this.'

'But Sahib,' he replied earnestly, 'I am no drunk. I will no be drinking again. You were sended to me . . . you are warning from God. I was drinking . . . wasting money. Sending little bit to wife in Purulia only. God sending you to me!'

'Venky,' I replied, 'if you're not drunk, then you've gone mad. How could you possibly think I was sent from Heaven?'

He lay out on the ground, as if mimicking a corpse.

'Konkalwallas/ he shouted, 'this was sign!'

Venky was eager to explain how the horrors of the skeleton factory had jerked him into a new, unknown life of moral rectitude. He had witnessed a vision . . . not God or angels, but skeleton dealers and their corpses. Somehow, he now saw me as his saviour. But there was no time for the adulation.

'Venky,' I said, 'I'm going on a trip. I need your help.'

'Trip? Oh, very nice. Where you to going?'

'I don't know.'

'When you are going?'

I tapped my watch.

'Immediately,' I said.

The hckshawalla gave me an uneasy glance.

'I need some ideas,' I said. 'If you could go anywhere in India to meet a godman . . . where would you go?'

'Holy man . . . sadhu 2 .'

'Yes, that's right . . .'

Venky thought long and hard. He masked his face with his spindly fingers. A minute passed. Five more minutes slipped away. The

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