The Amitav Ghosh Anthology by Amitav Ghosh

Author:Amitav Ghosh [Ghosh, Amitav]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Amitav Ghosh
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Two

A Pasteurized Cosmos

Eventually, Assistant Superintendent of Police Jyoti Das heard about it all. Bhudeb Roy told him about Balaram’s doings at the Saraswati Puja in the course of a rambling and slightly nostalgic account of Balaram’s life in Lalpukur. Though ten years had passed, he remembered the incident graphically.

It was the first sign, Bhudeb Roy said, of Balaram’s deterioration. He said it a little regretfully, for even then, after all that had happened, he could never speak of Balaram without respect. But he remembered that he was talking to an AS of Police and why, so he added: But he was always like that – confused. A confused extremist. It took me many years to find out, and by that time it was too late. He was set in his dangerous ways. An extremist; no respect for order. A terribly confused extremist.

ASP Das was tired and a little bewildered after all that had happened that day. It was the first time, as he told his mother afterwards, that he had drawn his gun in earnest, meaning to kill. Of course, they had all been trained to deal with situations like that at the Police Academy. But it was different somehow when it actually happened. With un-officerly embarrassment he had noticed his wrists shaking long before he had fired a shot, and despite himself he couldn’t help being glad that he had not actually had to use the gun. He had hardly expected that one flare would do the whole job for him. He noticed Bhudeb Roy’s huge face again with a start and sat up. But, Bhudeb-babu, he said, if you thought so then, why didn’t you do something? Why didn’t you make him leave the village?

You don’t understand, Bhudeb Roy said. You don’t understand, Superintendent-shaheb (Assistant, Assistant, Jyoti Das protested). There was little I could do. By then he was part of the village. He’d been here sixteen years, and as a schoolmaster, too. He had a house here. What could I do? Who knows what the villagers would have done if I’d tried to push him out of Lalpukur? You know how they are – simple …

Jyoti Das looked at that vast, bloated face with its little squinting eyes and clamp-like jaws and he flinched inwardly. He had had no alternative but to accept Bhudeb Roy’s ‘co-operation’ and hospitality, but he could not bring himself to like the man.

Jyoti Das heard of the burning of Balaram’s books quite by chance from Gopal Dey a few months later, in a small south Calcutta police station. He liked Gopal the moment he was led into the interrogation room. Gopal was very indignant at first and full of bluster. He quoted laws and sections and sub-clauses for a good five minutes after he was brought in. But once Jyoti Das shook his hand and offered him a cup of tea Gopal sat down quietly on a straight-backed wooden chair across the desk from him. Soon he began to talk. In

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