Sea of Poppies: A Novel (The Ibis Trilogy)

by Amitav Ghosh

  ‘Haul aft the sheet!’ – Dáman tán chikár!

  Hold on! Mamdoo-tindal’s warning came just as the knot sprung loose.

  Suddenly, as if seized by panic, the canvas reared up and flung itself against Jodu: it was as if a hunted swan were trying to beat off a pursuer with a frenzied thrashing of its wings. Just in time, Jodu fastened both arms around the mast and clung on, while the men below began to haul on the hanjes, to sheet the sail home. But with the updraughts blowing strong, the sail did not go easily and the canvas kept rearing up, as if to snap at Jodu’s heels.

  You see, said Mamdoo-tindal, with no little satisfaction. It’s not as easy as you launders think.

  Easy? Who’d think that?

  Slipping down from the masthead, Jodu seated himself astride the sabar yard so that he was sitting with his back to the tindal, with the mast in between. On either side of the schooner, the sea was striped with wide swathes of black shadow, marking the valleys between the swells. Up on the yard, where the ship’s motions were exaggerated by the height of the mast, it was if they were sitting on a palm tree that was swaying from side to side. Jodu tightened his hold, weaving his arms through the sawais, knowing full well that with the water heaving as it was, a fall would mean certain death. With the wind gusting like this, it would take at least an hour to bring the schooner about, and the chances of survival were so slight that the afsars were unlikely even to change course: yet, there was no denying that the danger added a dash of mirch to the masala of the masts.

  Mamdoo-tindal was of the same mind. He pointed to the outermost tip of the jib-boom, which was known to the lascars as the Shaitán-jíb – the Devil’s-tongue – because so many sailors had lost their lives there. We’re lucky to be here, he said. Just look at those poor buggers down there – the gandus are getting a bath like they’ve never had. Chhi! How it would make Ghaseeti’s kajal run!

  Glancing down at the schooner’s bows, Jodu saw that the Devil’s-tongue was plunging in and out of the swells, ducking the lascars who were sitting astride it, and tossing plumes of water over the deck, drenching the migrants who were emerging from the hatch for their midday meal. Under Jodu’s feet, below the footropes, there was an elliptical opening between the billowing trikat and the bara: this gap afforded a view of the waist of the schooner, and looking through it now, Jodu saw two sari-clad figures sitting crouched under the jamna devis. He knew, from the colour of the sari, that one of them was Munia, and he knew, too, from the incline of her veiled head, that she was looking at him.

  This exchange of glances did not elude Mamdoo-tindal, who curled his elbow around the mast to give Jodu a jab in the ribs. Are you staring at that girl again, you fuckwit of a launder?

  Surprised by the severity of his tone, Jodu said: What’s wrong with looking, Mamdoo-ji?

  Listen to me, boy, said Mamdoo-tindal. Can’t you see? You’re a lascar and she’s a coolie; you’re a Muslim and she’s not. There’s nothing for you in this: nothing but a whipping. Do you understand?

  Jodu burst into laughter. Arre, Mamdoo-ji, he said, you take things too seriously sometimes. What’s wrong with a couple of jokes and a laugh? Doesn’t it help the time pass? And wasn’t it you said that when Ghaseeti was my age she always got whoever she wanted – no jhula or bunk was safe from her?

  Tchhi! Turning away from the wind, the tindal ejected a gob of spittle that sailed away across the length of the yard, landing in the sea on the far side of the schooner. Listen, boy, he muttered darkly, under his breath. If you don’t know why this is different, then a dismasting may be just what you need.

  Even with fetters on his wrists, Ah Fatt possessed a sureness of hand that was astonishing to Neel. That he should be able to pluck flies out of the air – not swat, but pluck, trapping the insects between the tips of thumb and forefinger – was remarkable enough, but that he should be able to do this in the dark seemed scarcely credible. Often, at night, when Neel was ineffectually flailing his hands at a fly or mosquito, Ah Fatt would catch hold of his arm and tell him to lie still: ‘Shh! Let me listen.’

  To ask for silence in the chokey was to expect too much: what with the creaking of the ship’s timbers, the lapping of the water beneath the hull, the tread of the sailors above, and the voices of the migrants on the far side of the bulwark, it was never quiet within its confines. But Ah Fatt seemed to be able to use his senses in such a way as to block out some noises while focusing on others: when the insect made itself heard again, his hand would come shooting out of the darkness to put an end to its drone. It didn’t seem to matter even if the insect settled on Neel’s body: Ah Fatt would pluck it out of the darkness in such a way that Neel would feel nothing but a slight pinch on his skin.

  But tonight it was neither the hum of an insect nor Neel’s flailing that made Ah Fatt say: ‘Shh! Listen.’

  ‘What is it?’

  ‘Listen.’

  Suddenly Ah Fatt’s fetters moved, and their rattle was followed by a frantic, high-pitched squeaking. Then there was a snapping sound, like that of a bone breaking.

  ‘What was it?’ said Neel.

  ‘Rat.’ An odour of excrement filled the chokey as Ah Fatt removed the cover of the toilet bucket to drop the dead creature inside.

  Neel said: ‘I don’t understand how you can catch it with your bare hands.’

  ‘Learnt.’

  ‘To catch flies and mice?’

  Ah Fatt laughed. ‘No. Learnt to listen.’

  ‘From whom?’

  ‘Teacher.’

  Neel, for all his connoisseurship of teachers and tutors, could think of none who would teach this particular skill. ‘What kind of teacher would teach you that?’

  ‘Teacher who teach to box.’

  Neel was more than ever mystified. ‘A boxing teacher?’

  Ah Fatt laughed again. ‘Strange no? Father made to learn.’

  ‘But why?’

  ‘He want me be like English Man,’ said Ah Fatt. ‘Want me learn things that Man must know – rowing, hunting, cricket. But in Guangzhou, there is no hunting and there is no garden for cricket. And rowing is done by servant. So he makes to learn boxing.’

  ‘Your father? Did you live with your father then?’

  ‘No. Live with Grandmother. In junk.’

  The vessel was actually a Canton kitchen-boat, with a wide, flat prow, where dishes could be washed and pigs butchered. Aft of the prow was the galley, with a four-fire oven, sheltered by a bamboo roof; the middle section was sunken, and shaded by an awning, with a low table and benches for customers; the stern was square and high, with a double-decked house perched on it: this was where the family lived – Ah Fatt, his mother, his grandmother and whichever cousins or other relatives happened to be passing through.

  The kitchen-boat was a gift from Ah Fatt’s father, and it was a step up in the world for the family: before the boy was born they had lived in a snail-boat that was half the size. Barry would have liked to do still better by his son, the guilt of whose illegitimacy lay heavy on him: he would gladly have bought Chi Mei and her family a house, in the city or in one of the nearby villages – Chuen-pi, for instance, or Whampoa. But this was a Dan family, bred to the river and unwelcome on land. Barry knew this, and raised no objection, although he did make it clear that he would have liked them to acquire a vessel that did him some credit: a big, colourful pleasure-barge, for instance, of the kind that he could have boasted of to his comprador, Chunqua. But Chi Mei and her mother were of thrifty stock, and a dwelling that provided no income was, to them, as useless a thing as a barren sow. Not only did they insist on buying a kitchen-boat, they moored it within sight of the Fanqui-town, so it happened that when Ah Fatt was put to work, helping with customers – which began almost as soon as he learnt to keep his footing on a tilted deck – he could be seen clearly from the windows of the White-hat factory.

  Kyá-ré? the other Parsis would laugh; fine fellow you are, Barry – letting your bastard grow up like a boat-boy. For your daughte
rs you’re building mansions on Queensway – nothing for this bugger? True he’s not one of us, but there’s something there, no? Can’t just turn your back on him . . .

  This was unjust, for it was patent for all to see, Parsis and others alike, that Barry was an indulgent and ambitious father, who had every intention of providing his only son with the wherewithal to set himself up as a gentleman of good standing: the boy was to be erudite, active and urbane, as handy with rod and gun as with book and pen; a Man who spouted Manliness like a whale exhales spray. If schools refused to accept the illegitimate son of a boatwoman, then he would hire special tutors, to teach him reading and penmanship, in Chinese and English – that way, he could always make a career for himself as a linkister, translating between the Fanquis and their hosts. There were many such in Canton, but most were utterly incompetent; the boy could easily learn to outdo them all and might even make a name for himself.

  To find tutors who were willing to teach in a Dan kitchen-boat was no easy matter, but through Chunqua’s good offices, some were found. Ah Fatt took readily to his lessons and every year when his father returned to Canton for the season, the records of his progress grew longer and longer, the calligraphy ever more stylish. Every year, Barry would bring extravagant gifts from Bombay, to thank his comprador for keeping an eye on the progress of the boy’s education; every year Chunqua in turn would reciprocate with a present of his own, usually a book for the boy.

  In Ah Fatt’s thirteenth year, the present was a fine edition of that famous and beloved tale, Journey to the West.

  Barry was much enthused when the name was translated for him: ‘It’ll do him good to read about Europe and America. Some day I will send him on a visit.’

  Not without some embarrassment, Chunqua explained that the West in question was somewhat nearer at hand; in fact it was intended to be none other than Mr Moddie’s very own homeland – Hindusthan, or Jambudvipa as it was called in the old books.

  ‘Oh?’ Although no longer so enthusiastic, Barry gave the boy his present anyway, little knowing that he would soon regret this offhand decision. Later, he came to be convinced that it was this book that was responsible for the fancies that entered Ah Fatt’s head: ‘Want to go West . . .’

  Every time the boy saw him, he would plead to visit his father’s homeland. But this was the one indulgence Barry could not grant: to think of letting the boy sail to Bombay on one of his father-in-law’s ships; to imagine him walking down the gangplank, into a crowd of waiting relatives; to conceive of presenting his mother-in-law, his wife, his daughters, with fleshly evidence of his other life, in Canton, which they knew of only as a provenance for finely embroidered silks, pretty fans and torrents of silver – none of these notions could be entertained for more than a moment; why, it would be like unloosing an army of termites on the parqueted floors of his Churchgate mansion. The other Parsis in Canton might know about the boy, but he knew he could trust them to be discreet back home: after all, he, Barry, was not the only one to lapse from bachelordom during these long months of exile. And even if a whisper or two were to reach his hometown, he knew people would ignore them so long as the evidence was kept safely hidden from view. If, on the other hand, he were to bring the boy back, for people to see with their own eyes, then a great flame of scandal would erupt from the doors of the fire-temple, to light a conflagration that would ultimately consume his lucrative living.

  No, Freddy, listen to me, he said to Ah Fatt. This ‘West’ you’ve got in your head is just something that was made up in a silly old book. Later, when you’re grown up, I’ll send you to the real West – to France or America or England, some place where people are civilized. When you get there you’ll be able to set yourself up as a prince or a foxhunting man. But don’t think of Hindusthan; forget about it. It’s the one place that’s not good for you.

  ‘And he was right,’ said Ah Fatt. ‘Was not good for me.’

  ‘Why? What did you do?’

  ‘Robbery. Did robbery.’

  ‘When? Where?’

  Ah Fatt rolled away, burying his face. ‘Nother time,’ he said, in a muffled voice. ‘Not now.’

  The turbulence of the open sea had a calamitous effect on Baboo Nob Kissin’s processes of digestion and many days passed before he was able to make his way from the midships-cabin to the main deck. But when at last he stepped into the open air and felt the moisture of the sea on his face, he understood that all those days of dizziness, diarrhoea and vomiting were the necessary period of suffering that precedes a moment of illumination: for he had only to look at the spindrift that was flying off the schooner’s bows to know that the Ibis was not a ship like any other; in her inward reality she was a vehicle of transformation, travelling through the mists of illusion towards the elusive, ever-receding landfall that was Truth.

  Nowhere was this transformation more evident than in himself, for the presence of Taramony was so palpable within him now that his outer body felt increasingly like the spent wrappings of a cocoon, destined soon to fall away from the new being that was gestating within. Every day offered some fresh sign of the growing fullness of the womanly presence inside him – for example, his mounting revulsion at the coarseness of the maistries and silahdars with whom he had perforce to live: when he heard them speaking of breasts and buttocks, it was as if his own body were being discussed and derided; at times, his need to veil himself was so intense that he would pull a sheet over his head. His maternal stirrings too had now grown so exigent that he could not walk across the main deck without lingering awhile over that part of it which lay above the convicts’ cell.

  This proclivity earned him many earfuls of galis from the las-cars, and several angry tirades from Serang Ali: ‘What for you standi here likee cock-a-roach? Bugger too muchi foolo – nevva hit any use.’

  Mr Crowle was even more direct: ‘Pander, y’spigot-sucking gobble-prick! With all the wide welkin around us, why d’ye always have to be beating the booby right here? I tell yer, Pander, I see yer here again and I’m going to splice a cuntline to yer arse.’

  To these assaults on his dignity the gomusta tried always to respond with queenly self-possession. ‘Sir, I must deplore to your fulsome remarks. There is no need to pass dirty-dirty comments. Why all the time you are giving dagger-looks and criticizing? Only I have come to take air and refresh. If you are busy you need not bestow undue attention.’

  But the semi-proximity of his lingering presence on deck was galling not just to the sailors, but also to Taramony, whose voice was now often in Baboo Nob Kissin’s head, urging him to enter the very precincts of the chokey, to bring her closer to her adopted son. These promptings precipitated a raging conflict between the emergent mother, seeking to comfort her child, and that part of Baboo Nob Kissin which continued to be a worldly gomusta, bound by all manner of everyday proprieties.

  But I can’t go down there! he would protest. What will people think?

  How does it matter? she would respond. You can do what you like: aren’t you the ship’s supercargo?

  There was no denying that Baboo Nob Kissin was one of the few people on the Ibis who had the right of access to every part of the ship. As the supercargo, he often had business with the Captain and was regularly to be seen making his way into the officers’ part of the ship, where he would sometimes lurk at Zachary’s door, in the hope of hearing his flute once again. In his official capacity, he had also been empowered, by Mr Burnham, to inspect the other parts of the vessel, and he even had in his possession a set of spare keys for the chokey.

  None of this was a secret from Taramony, and as the days passed it became clear to Baboo Nob Kissin that if she was ever to manifest herself in him, then he would have to embrace every aspect of her being, including her capacity for maternal love. There was no getting out of it: he would have to find a way to the chokey.

  Like an animal returning to its natural element, the Ibis seemed to grow ever more exuberant as she went lasking along on the open sea. The schoon
er had been on the Bay of Bengal for exactly a week when Paulette looked up from her washing one afternoon, and noticed that the sky above was a luminous, radiant blue, its colour deepened by flecks of cloud that mirrored the crests on the water below. The wind was blowing strong and hard, and the waves and clouds seemed to be racing each other across a single, vast firmament, with the schooner straining in pursuit, her timbers groaning with the effort of the chase. It was as if the alchemy of the open water had endowed her with her own will, her own life.

  Leaning over the rail, Paulette gingerly lowered her balty to draw some water. As she was pulling the bucket up again a flying fish came rocketing out but only to leap back into the waves. The flutter of its wings drew a squeal of laughter from Paulette and startled her into tipping her balty over, spilling the water partly on herself and partly on the deck. Alarmed at the mess, she fell to her knees and was busily pushing the water down the scuppers when she heard a peremptory shout: ‘You there – yes you!’

  It was Mr Crowle, and much to Paulette’s relief, he was shouting not at her, but at someone else: since his voice was pitched to the tone he commonly employed with the lowest of the lascars, Paulette assumed that he was shouting at some unfortunate launder or topas. But such was not the case; looking aft, she saw that it was Zachary who had been thus addressed. He was on the quarter-deck, heading back to his cabin after the end of his watch. His face went red as he came to the fife-rails. ‘Were you speaking to me, Mr Crowle?’

  ‘That’s right.’

  ‘What is it?’