The Shanghai Union of Industrial Mystics by Nury Vittachi

Author:Nury Vittachi [Vittachi, Nury]
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Tags: Mystery, Humour
ISBN: 9781741158625
Publisher: Allen & Unwin Pty Ltd
Published: 2010-05-25T04:00:00+00:00

‘The key thing to remember is that the earth is square,’ Dilip Kenneth Sinha said. ‘Obviously.’

Buoyed by his triumph in locating Jia Lin, he was treating Linyao to a free lecture on the key principles of vaastu shastra as he drove her to the centre of Shanghai. His plan was to drop her there so she could hook up with Joyce and Wong, and then he would track down the union’s local contact. Shang Dan had lived in the city for years, had a good feel for local politics, and was the person most likely to be able to deliver useful information about the bizarre events of the past twenty-four hours.

Linyao, who was sitting in the front passenger seat as he manoeuvred the Renault, not without difficulty, through the Shanghai traffic, was only half listening. Her sleep-deprived, adrenalin-filled head was reeling. It had been hard to tear herself away from her daughter, but she had found the idea of Jia Lin heading out of the city for a few days irresistible. Occasionally, something in his droning voice would catch her attention and she would react.

‘Square? The earth is square?’

He nodded. ‘Yes. Not physically, but in cosmological terms. We think of it having four directions: sunrise, sunset, north magnetic pole and south magnetic pole.’

‘But that is just a different way of talking about north, south, east and west, yes?’

‘The Western way just treats them as points. The Eastern way gives each direction its own individual character. For example, sunrise—what Westerners boringly call east—delivers warm, healthy, life-giving, beneficial rays. The other directions do not. The energy of the north is heavy and grand, for example, and is associated with the head. So that’s why we never sleep with our heads to the north.’

It took a few seconds for the apparent contradiction in Sinha’s words to filter into her brain. ‘Run that by me again. The head is north, so why don’t we sleep with our heads to the north?’

‘The body is a type of cosmological magnet. The head is the north of the body. We never sleep with our heads north because two magnets oriented in the same direction repulse each other. This is the opposite of feng shui, which considers north the area of sexuality, and thus recommends that beds be sited with the sleepers’ heads pointing north. But most regions of the planet have their own geomantic systems.’

‘Not Canada,’ said Linyao, who was using the conversation as a means of keeping awake while trying to avoid touching on subjects that might engender emotional strain—such as thinking about exactly what lethal plots the kidnappers’ gang had concocted, and where she fitted in.

Sinha expertly spun the wheel to swerve around a truck which had pulled out without warning in front of him. ‘Even the Western world has its own geomantic traditions,’ he said. ‘Consider De Architectura, written by Marcus Vitruvius in the first century BC. It purports to be the first book of architecture, but in fact deals with all sorts of human issues, ranging from art to morality to the gods.

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