[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
teach mathematics very seriously, but you did have Euclidean plane geometry
in your secondary school, didn t you?
Yeah, even American high schools teach that, kiddo.
Then you know that there are non-Euclidean geometries?
I ve heard nasty rumors to that effect.
I m serious, Bobby. I m trying to understand something here.
Go ahead.
Well, I began thinking about it after I mentioned alternate sets and exper-
iments to Chatterjee.
Uh-huh.
If Indian culture was an experiment, then my Western prejudices tell me that
it s a failure. At least in terms of its ability to adapt and protect its people.
No argument there.
But if it s just another set, then my metaphor suggests a much worse
possibility.
What is that?
If we think in terms of set theory, then I m convinced that my two cul-
ture sets are eternally incompatible. And I am the product of these two
cultures. The common element in two sets without common elements, as
it were.
East is East and West is West and never the twain shall meet?
You see my problem, don t you, Bobby?
Perhaps a good marriage counselor could
90
Dan Simmons Song of Kali [ e - r e ads ]
Shut up, please. The metaphor made me think of a more frightening anal-
ogy. What if the differences we re reacting to in Calcutta are the result of the
culture s not being another set but a different geometry?
What s the difference?
I thought you knew Euclid.
We were introduced but never got on a first-name basis.
Amrita sighed and looked out at the industrial nightmare through which
we traveled. It occurred to me that this was Fitzgerald s industrial wasteland
imagery from Gatsby taken to the tenth power. It also occurred to me that my
own private literary references were beginning to be contaminated by Amrita s
mathematical metaphors.
I watched as a man squatted by the roadside to defecate. He lifted his shirt
over his head and prepared a small bronze bowl of water for the fingers of his
left hand.
Sets and number theories overlap, said Amrita. I suddenly realized by the
tension in her voice that she was very serious. Geometries don t. Different
geometries are based on different theorems, postulate different axioms, and
give rise to different realities.
Different realities? I repeated. How can you have different realities?
Perhaps you cannot, said Amrita. Perhaps only one is real. Perhaps only
one geometry is true. But the question is, What happens to me to all of us
if we ve chosen the wrong one?
The police were waiting for us when we returned to the hotel.
A gentleman has been waiting to see you, sir, said the assistant manager
as he handed me our room key. I turned to the lobby expecting to find
Krishna, but the man who rose from the plum-colored sofa was tall, turbaned,
and bearded obviously a Sikh.
Mr. Luck-zak?
Loo-zack. Yes.
I am inspector Singh of the Calcutta Metropolitan Police. He showed me
a badge and a faded identity photo behind yellowed plastic.
Inspector? I did not offer to shake hands.
Mr. Luczak, I would like to speak to you concerning a case which our
department is investigating.
Krishna s got me into some sort of trouble. And what is that, Inspector?
The disappearance of M. Das.
Ah, I said and gave the room key to Amrita. I had no intention of invit-
ing this policeman up to our room. Do you need to speak to my wife,
Inspector? It s time for our little one to eat.
91
Dan Simmons Song of Kali [ e - r e ads ]
No. It will take only a minute, Mr. Luczak. I am sorry to interrupt your
afternoon.
Amrita carried Victoria to the elevator and I looked around. The assistant
manager and several porters were watching curiously. What do you say we
go into the License Room, Inspector? This was the Indian hotel euphemism
for a bar.
Very good.
It was darker in the bar, but as I ordered a gin and tonic and the Inspector
asked for just tonic, I was able to take time to appraise the tall Sikh.
Inspector Singh carried himself with the unself-conscious authority of a
man who was used to being obeyed. His voice held the echo of years in
England, not the Oxbridge drawl but the clipped precision of Sandhurst or
one of the other academies. He wore a well-tailored tan suit that fell just short
of being a uniform. The turban was wine-red.
His appearance confirmed what little I knew about Sikhs. A minority
religious group, they made up possibly the most aggressive and productive
segment of Indian society. As a people they tended to understand machin-
ery, and although the majority of Sikhs inhabited the Punjab, they could be
found driving taxis and operating heavy equipment throughout the country.
Amrita s father had said that ninety percent of his bulldozer operators had
been Sikhs. It was also the Sikhs who made up the upper echelons of the
military and police forces. From what Amrita had told me, only the Sikhs
had capitalized on the Green Revolution and modern agricultural technol-
ogy to make a go of their extensive cooperative farms in the north of India.
It also had been the Sikhs who were responsible for many of the massacres
of Muslim civilians during the partition riots.
Cheers, said Inspector Singh and sipped at his tonic water. A steel
bracelet rattled against his heavy wristwatch. The bracelet was a constant
symbol of his faith, as was the beard and a small ceremonial dagger he would
be carrying. A security guard at the Bombay airport on Thursday had asked a
Sikh ahead of us in line, Are you carrying any weapons other than your
sabre? The rest of us had submitted to body searches, but the Sikh had been
passed through after his negative grunt.
How can I help you, Inspector?
You can share any information you have about the whereabouts of the
poet M. Das.
Das has been missing for a long time, Inspector. I m surprised you re
still interested.
M. Das s file is still open, sir. The 1969 investigation concluded that he
was most probably the victim of foul play. Does your country have a statute of
limitations on murder?
92
Dan Simmons Song of Kali [ e - r e ads ]
No, I don t think so, I said. But in the States we have to produce a body
for it to be a murder.
Exactly. That is why we would appreciate any information you could
share with us. M. Das left many influential friends, Mr. Luczak. Many of these
people are in even more respected positions now, eight years after the poet s
disappearance. We would all be relieved to conclude this investigation.
All right, I said, and proceeded to tell him of my involvement with
Harper s and the arrangement with the Bengali Writers Union. I debated telling
him about Krishna and Muktanandaji, and then decided that such a fantastic
story would only cause complications with the police.
So you have no confirmation that M. Das is alive other than the poem
which you may or may not receive through the Writers Union? asked Singh.
That and the letter Michael Leonard Chatterjee read at the meeting
with the executive council, I said. Singh nodded as if he was well aware of
the correspondence. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
zanotowane.pl doc.pisz.pl pdf.pisz.pl akte20.pev.pl
teach mathematics very seriously, but you did have Euclidean plane geometry
in your secondary school, didn t you?
Yeah, even American high schools teach that, kiddo.
Then you know that there are non-Euclidean geometries?
I ve heard nasty rumors to that effect.
I m serious, Bobby. I m trying to understand something here.
Go ahead.
Well, I began thinking about it after I mentioned alternate sets and exper-
iments to Chatterjee.
Uh-huh.
If Indian culture was an experiment, then my Western prejudices tell me that
it s a failure. At least in terms of its ability to adapt and protect its people.
No argument there.
But if it s just another set, then my metaphor suggests a much worse
possibility.
What is that?
If we think in terms of set theory, then I m convinced that my two cul-
ture sets are eternally incompatible. And I am the product of these two
cultures. The common element in two sets without common elements, as
it were.
East is East and West is West and never the twain shall meet?
You see my problem, don t you, Bobby?
Perhaps a good marriage counselor could
90
Dan Simmons Song of Kali [ e - r e ads ]
Shut up, please. The metaphor made me think of a more frightening anal-
ogy. What if the differences we re reacting to in Calcutta are the result of the
culture s not being another set but a different geometry?
What s the difference?
I thought you knew Euclid.
We were introduced but never got on a first-name basis.
Amrita sighed and looked out at the industrial nightmare through which
we traveled. It occurred to me that this was Fitzgerald s industrial wasteland
imagery from Gatsby taken to the tenth power. It also occurred to me that my
own private literary references were beginning to be contaminated by Amrita s
mathematical metaphors.
I watched as a man squatted by the roadside to defecate. He lifted his shirt
over his head and prepared a small bronze bowl of water for the fingers of his
left hand.
Sets and number theories overlap, said Amrita. I suddenly realized by the
tension in her voice that she was very serious. Geometries don t. Different
geometries are based on different theorems, postulate different axioms, and
give rise to different realities.
Different realities? I repeated. How can you have different realities?
Perhaps you cannot, said Amrita. Perhaps only one is real. Perhaps only
one geometry is true. But the question is, What happens to me to all of us
if we ve chosen the wrong one?
The police were waiting for us when we returned to the hotel.
A gentleman has been waiting to see you, sir, said the assistant manager
as he handed me our room key. I turned to the lobby expecting to find
Krishna, but the man who rose from the plum-colored sofa was tall, turbaned,
and bearded obviously a Sikh.
Mr. Luck-zak?
Loo-zack. Yes.
I am inspector Singh of the Calcutta Metropolitan Police. He showed me
a badge and a faded identity photo behind yellowed plastic.
Inspector? I did not offer to shake hands.
Mr. Luczak, I would like to speak to you concerning a case which our
department is investigating.
Krishna s got me into some sort of trouble. And what is that, Inspector?
The disappearance of M. Das.
Ah, I said and gave the room key to Amrita. I had no intention of invit-
ing this policeman up to our room. Do you need to speak to my wife,
Inspector? It s time for our little one to eat.
91
Dan Simmons Song of Kali [ e - r e ads ]
No. It will take only a minute, Mr. Luczak. I am sorry to interrupt your
afternoon.
Amrita carried Victoria to the elevator and I looked around. The assistant
manager and several porters were watching curiously. What do you say we
go into the License Room, Inspector? This was the Indian hotel euphemism
for a bar.
Very good.
It was darker in the bar, but as I ordered a gin and tonic and the Inspector
asked for just tonic, I was able to take time to appraise the tall Sikh.
Inspector Singh carried himself with the unself-conscious authority of a
man who was used to being obeyed. His voice held the echo of years in
England, not the Oxbridge drawl but the clipped precision of Sandhurst or
one of the other academies. He wore a well-tailored tan suit that fell just short
of being a uniform. The turban was wine-red.
His appearance confirmed what little I knew about Sikhs. A minority
religious group, they made up possibly the most aggressive and productive
segment of Indian society. As a people they tended to understand machin-
ery, and although the majority of Sikhs inhabited the Punjab, they could be
found driving taxis and operating heavy equipment throughout the country.
Amrita s father had said that ninety percent of his bulldozer operators had
been Sikhs. It was also the Sikhs who made up the upper echelons of the
military and police forces. From what Amrita had told me, only the Sikhs
had capitalized on the Green Revolution and modern agricultural technol-
ogy to make a go of their extensive cooperative farms in the north of India.
It also had been the Sikhs who were responsible for many of the massacres
of Muslim civilians during the partition riots.
Cheers, said Inspector Singh and sipped at his tonic water. A steel
bracelet rattled against his heavy wristwatch. The bracelet was a constant
symbol of his faith, as was the beard and a small ceremonial dagger he would
be carrying. A security guard at the Bombay airport on Thursday had asked a
Sikh ahead of us in line, Are you carrying any weapons other than your
sabre? The rest of us had submitted to body searches, but the Sikh had been
passed through after his negative grunt.
How can I help you, Inspector?
You can share any information you have about the whereabouts of the
poet M. Das.
Das has been missing for a long time, Inspector. I m surprised you re
still interested.
M. Das s file is still open, sir. The 1969 investigation concluded that he
was most probably the victim of foul play. Does your country have a statute of
limitations on murder?
92
Dan Simmons Song of Kali [ e - r e ads ]
No, I don t think so, I said. But in the States we have to produce a body
for it to be a murder.
Exactly. That is why we would appreciate any information you could
share with us. M. Das left many influential friends, Mr. Luczak. Many of these
people are in even more respected positions now, eight years after the poet s
disappearance. We would all be relieved to conclude this investigation.
All right, I said, and proceeded to tell him of my involvement with
Harper s and the arrangement with the Bengali Writers Union. I debated telling
him about Krishna and Muktanandaji, and then decided that such a fantastic
story would only cause complications with the police.
So you have no confirmation that M. Das is alive other than the poem
which you may or may not receive through the Writers Union? asked Singh.
That and the letter Michael Leonard Chatterjee read at the meeting
with the executive council, I said. Singh nodded as if he was well aware of
the correspondence. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]