Sea of Poppies: A Novel (The Ibis Trilogy)

by Amitav Ghosh

  The sheeshmahal was partitioned into two halves by a velvet curtain: the rear section was used as a dining room, and was graced by a table of fine calamander wood. Now, when the curtains were parted, it was found that the polished surface of the table had gone grey with neglect, and a family of scorpions had taken up residence under it. A platoon of stick-wielding paiks had to be summoned, to drive the creatures away, and then a duck had to be caught and killed, so that the table could be polished with its fat.

  At the far end of the sheeshmahal, behind the dining table, there was a screened alcove, meant to accommodate women in purdah: from this sequestered vantage point, the old Raja’s mistresses had been accustomed to observe his guests. But neglect had taken a toll on the delicately carved observation screen, which was found to have rotted away. A curtain, with hastily pierced peepholes, was installed in its place, at Elokeshi’s insistence, for she felt it to be her right to appraise the guests. This in turn inspired a desire for a fuller participation in the evening so she decided that her three companions would provide some after-dinner entertainment by staging a few dances. But upon inspection it was found that the floor had warped: to dance barefoot on the crooked boards was to risk a rich crop of splinters. A carpenter had to be summoned to flatten the boards.

  No sooner was this problem resolved than another arose: the sheeshmahal was equipped with a full set of ivory-handled silverware, as well as a complete dinner service, imported at great expense from the Swinton pottery in England. Being reserved for the use of unclean, beef-eating foreigners, these utensils were kept locked in cabinets, to prevent the contamination of the household’s other crockery. Now, on opening the cabinet, Parimal discovered, to his shock, that many of the plates were missing, as was much of the silverware. There remained just about enough to provide for a dinner for four – but the discovery of the theft created an unpleasant climate of suspicion which resulted ultimately in an outbreak of internecine fighting on the kitchen-boat. After two paiks ended up with broken noses, Neel was forced to intervene: although peace was restored, the preparations for the evening were much delayed and Neel could not be provided with a proper meal, in advance of the dinner that would be served to his guests. This was a sore blow, for it meant that Neel would have to fast while his guests feasted: the rules of the Raskhali household were strict in regard to whom the Raja could eat with, and unclean beef-eaters were not a part of that small circle – even Elokeshi was not included in it, and had always to feed herself in secret when Neel came to spend the night in her house. So strict was the Halder family’s usage in this regard, that when entertaining, it was their custom to sit politely at table with their guests but without ever touching any of the food that was heaped before them: so as not to be tempted, they always ate their dinner earlier, and this was what Neel would have liked to do – but with the kitchen-boat in disarray, he had to be content with a few handfuls of parched rice, soaked in milk.

  Just as the sound of the sunset azan was floating across the water, Neel discovered that he had no more of the fine shanbaff dhotis and abrawan-muslin kurtas that he usually wore on public occasions: they had all been sent off to be laundered. He had to content himself with a relatively coarse dosooti dhoti and an alliballie kurta. Somewhere in his baggage, Elokeshi found gold-embroidered Lahori jooties for his feet: it was she who led him to his seat in the sheeshmahal and draped his shoulders in a shawl of fine Warangal nayansukh, with a border of zerbaft brocade. Then, with the Ibis’s jollyboat approaching, she whisked herself out of sight and went off to preside over her companions’ rehearsals.

  When the guests were shown in, Neel rose ceremonially to his feet: Mr Burnham, he noticed, had come in his riding clothes, but the other two men had evidently been at some pains to dress for the occasion. Both men were wearing double-breasted coats, and a ruby pin could be seen in the folds of Mr Doughty’s cravat. Mr Reid’s lapels were ornamented with the chain of an elegant watch. His guests’ finery made Neel self-conscious, and he swirled his brocaded shawl protectively over his chest as he folded his hands together in welcome: ‘Mr Burnham, Mr Doughty – I am most greatly honoured to be afforded this privilege.’

  The two Englishmen merely bowed their heads in response, but Zachary startled Neel by moving forward as if to shake hands. He was rescued by Mr Doughty, who managed to intercept the American. ‘Keep your hands to yourself, you gudda of a griffin,’ whispered the pilot. ‘Touch him and he’ll be off to bathe, and we won’t be fed till midnight.’

  None of the visitors had been on the Raskhali budgerow before, so they accepted readily when Neel offered them a tour of the public parts of the barge. On the upper deck they came upon Raj Rattan, who was flying kites by moonlight. Mr Doughty made a harrumphing sound when the boy was introduced: ‘Is this little Rascal your Upper-Roger, Raja Nil-Rotten?’

  ‘The upa-raja, yes,’ Neel nodded. ‘My sole issue and heir. The tender fruit of my loin, as your poets might say.’

  ‘Ah! Your little green mango!’ Mr Doughty shot a wink in Zachary’s direction. ‘And if I may be so bold as to ask – would you describe your loin as the stem or the branch?’

  Neel gave him a frosty glare. ‘Why, sir,’ he said coldly, ‘it is the tree itself.’

  Mr Burnham took a turn with a kite and proved to be adept at the sport, sending his kite soaring and dipping, its glass-coated string flashing in the moonlight. When Neel commented on the dabness of his hand, his response was: ‘Oh, I learnt in Canton: no better place to learn about kites!’

  Back in the sheeshmahal, a bottle of champagne was waiting in a balty of muddy river water. Mr Doughty fell upon the wine with an expression of delight: ‘Simkin! Shahbash – just the thing.’ Pouring himself a glass, he gave Neel a broad wink: ‘My father used to say, “Hold a bottle by the neck and a woman by the waist. Never the other way around.” I’ll wager that would have rung a ganta or two with your own father, eh Roger Nil-Rotten – now he was quite the rascal, wasn’t he, your father?’

  Neel gave him a chilly smile: repelled as he was by the pilot’s manner, he could not help reflecting on what a mercy it was that his ancestors had excluded wine and liquor from the list of things that could not be shared with unclean foreigners – it would be all but impossible, surely, to deal with them, if not for their drink? He would have liked another glass of simkin but he noticed, from the corner of his eye, that Parimal was making signals to indicate that dinner was ready. He took the folds of his dhoti into his hands. ‘Gentlemen, I am being given to believe that our repast has been readied.’ As he rose to his feet, the sheeshmahal’s velvet curtain was swept back to reveal a large, polished table, set in the English fashion, with knives, forks, plates and wineglasses. Two immense candelabra stood at either end, illuminating the settings; in the centre was an arrangement of wilted water lilies, piled together in such profusion that almost nothing could be seen of the vase that held them. There was no food on the table, for meals in the Raskhali household were served in the Bengali fashion, in successive courses.

  Neel had arranged the seating so that he would have Mr Burnham across the table from him, with Zachary and Mr Doughty to his left and right, respectively. There was a bearer behind each chair, as was the custom, and although they were all dressed in the Raskhali livery, Neel noticed that their uniforms – pyjamas, turbans and belted chapkan coats that came down to the knees – were strangely ill-fitting. It was then that he remembered that they were not bearers at all, but young boatmen, who had been hastily pressed into service by Parimal: their discomfort with the role was evident in their nervous twitches and shifty glances.

  Now, on arriving at the table, there was a long pause during which Neel and his guests stayed on their feet, waiting for their chairs to be pushed forward. Catching Parimal’s eye, Neel realized that the boatmen had not been told about this part of the ceremony: they, in turn, were waiting for the guests to come to them; clearly they were under the impression that the diners were to be seated at a distance of several f
eet from the table – and how indeed were they to know, it occurred to Neel to wonder, that chairs and tables belonged in much closer proximity?

  In the interim, one of the young boatmen took the initiative and gave Mr Doughty’s elbow a helpful tap, to indicate that his chair was empty and waiting to be occupied, some three feet to the rear. Neel saw the pilot reddening and intervened hastily in Bengali, ordering the boatmen to bring the chairs closer. The command was so sharply uttered that the youngest of the boatmen, a boy who happened to be attending upon Zachary, brought his chair forward in a startled rush, as though he were pushing a dinghy down a mudbank. The lip of the chair caught Zachary from behind, scooping him up and delivering him to the table – breathless, but otherwise unharmed.

  Although he apologized profusely, Neel was pleased to see that Zachary was more amused than offended by the incident: in the short time they had spent together, the young American had made a considerable impression on him, as much for the innate elegance of his person as for the reserve of his bearing. The provenance and origins of strangers often provoked Neel’s curiosity: in Bengal it was so easy to know who was who; more often than not, just to hear someone’s name would reveal their religion, their caste, their village. Foreigners were, by comparison, so opaque: it was impossible not to speculate about them. Mr Reid’s demeanour, for example, suggested to Neel that he might be descended from an old, aristocratic family – he remembered having read somewhere that it was not unusual for the European nobility to send their younger sons to America. This thought led him to remark: ‘Your city, Mr Reid, am I not right to think it was named for a certain Lord Baltimore?’

  The answer was oddly unsure – ‘May . . . maybe – I’m not sure . . .’ – but Neel persisted: ‘Lord Baltimore was an ancestor of yours, perhaps?’ This elicited a startled shaking of the head and an abashed denial – which served only to persuade Neel all the more firmly of the noble origins of his reticent guest. ‘Will you be sailing back to Baltimore soon . . . ?’ Neel asked. He was about to add ‘my lord’ but caught himself just in time.

  ‘Why no, sir,’ Zachary responded. ‘The Ibis is bound first for the Mauritius. If we make good time, we may sail to China later in the year.’

  ‘I see.’ This recalled to Neel’s mind his original purpose in hosting this meal, which was to discover whether there was any immediate prospect of a change in his chief creditor’s fortunes. He turned to Mr Burnham: ‘There is an improvement, then, in the situation in China?’

  Mr Burnham answered with a shake of his head: ‘No, Raja Neel Rattan. No. Truth to tell, the situation has worsened considerably – to the point where there is serious talk of war. Indeed that may well be the reason for the Ibis’s voyage to China.’

  ‘A war?’ said Neel in astonishment. ‘But I have heard nothing about a war with China.’

  ‘I am sure you haven’t,’ said Mr Burnham, with a thin smile. ‘Why indeed should a man like you concern yourself with such matters? You have more than enough to occupy you, I’m sure, with all your palaces and zenanas and budgerows.’

  Neel knew that he was being sneered at and his hackles rose, but he was saved from an intemperate response by the timely appearance of the first course – a steaming soup. The silver tureen having been stolen, the soup was presented in the one remaining utensil that was made of the same metal: a punch-bowl shaped like a seashell.

  Mr Doughty permitted himself an indulgent smile. ‘Do I smell duck?’ he said, sniffing the air.

  Neel had no idea of what was to be served, for the cooks on the kitchen-boat had been foraging for provisions almost till the last. Having reached the final leg of its journey, the budgerow’s stocks of food had begun to run low: the news that there was to be a grand dinner had caused panic among the cooks; an army of piyadas, paiks and boatmen had been dispatched to fish and forage – with what results, Neel did not know. So it was Parimal who confirmed, in a whisper, that the soup had been made from the flesh of the very animal whose fat had been used to polish the table – but the latter part of the tale Neel kept to himself, conveying only that the soup was indeed concocted from the remains of a duck.

  ‘Excellent!’ said Mr Doughty, tipping back his glass. ‘And a fine sherry-shrub too.’

  Although glad of the interruption, Neel had not forgotten Mr Burnham’s dismissive jibes about his preoccupations. He was convinced now that the shipowner was exaggerating in order to persuade him of the extent of his firm’s losses. Taking care to keep his voice even, he said: ‘You will no doubt be surprised to know, Mr Burnham, that I have been at some pains to be keeping myself informed – yet I know nothing about this war you speak of.’

  ‘Well then, it falls to me to inform you, sir,’ said Mr Burnham, ‘that of late the officials in Canton have been moving forcefully to end the inflow of opium into China. It is the unanimous opinion of all of us who do business there that the mandarins cannot be allowed to have their way. To end the trade would be ruinous – for firms like mine, but also for you, and indeed for all of India.’

  ‘Ruinous?’ said Neel mildly. ‘But surely we can offer China something more useful than opium?’

  ‘Would that it were so,’ said Mr Burnham. ‘But it is not. To put the matter simply: there is nothing they want from us – they’ve got it into their heads that they have no use for our products and manufactures. But we, on the other hand, can’t do without their tea and their silks. If not for opium, the drain of silver from Britain and her colonies would be too great to sustain.’

  Here, Mr Doughty suddenly joined in: ‘The trouble, you know, is that Johnny Chinaman thinks he can return to the good old days, before he got his taste for opium. But there’s no going back – just won’t hoga.’

  ‘Going back?’ said Neel, in surprise. ‘But China’s hunger for opium dates back to antiquity, does it not?’

  ‘Antiquity?’ scoffed Mr Doughty. ‘Why, even when I first went out to Canton, as a lad, there was just a trickle of opium going in. Damned hard-headed gudda is Johnny Long-tail. I can tell you, it wasn’t easy to get him to take to opium. No sir – to give credit where it’s due, you would have to say that the yen for opium would still be limited to their twice-born if not for the perseverance of English and American merchants. It’s happened almost within living memory – for which we owe a sincere vote of thanks to the likes of Mr Burnham.’ He raised his glass to the shipowner. ‘To you, sir.’

  Neel was about to join in the toast when the next course appeared: it consisted of fledgling chickens that had been cooked whole. ‘I’ll be damned if it isn’t a roast of Sudden-Death!’ cried Mr Doughty, in delight. Spearing a bird’s tiny head with his fork, he began to chew on it in dreamy contentment.

  Neel stared at the bird on his plate in glum resignation: he was suddenly very hungry and had he not been in plain view of his retainers he would certainly have set upon the chicken – but he distracted himself instead by belatedly raising his glass to Mr Burnham. ‘To you, sir,’ he said, ‘and your successes in China.’

  Mr Burnham smiled. ‘It wasn’t easy, I can tell you,’ he said. ‘Especially in the early days, when the mandarins were somewhat less than amenable.’

  ‘Really?’ Not having given much thought to commerce, Neel had imagined that the traffic in opium enjoyed official approval in China – this seemed only natural since in Bengal the trade was not merely sanctioned but monopolized by the British authorities, under the seal of the East India Company. ‘You amaze me, Mr Burnham,’ he said. ‘Is the sale of opium frowned on by the Chinese authorities, then?’

  ‘I’m afraid so,’ said Mr Burnham. ‘Trafficking in opium has been illegal there for some time. But they’ve never made a tumasher about it in the past: their mandarins and chuntocks always got their ten-per-cent desturees and were glad to shut their eyes to it. The only reason they’re making a fuss now is that they want a bigger share of the profits.’

  ‘It’s simple,’ Mr Doughty announced, chewing on a wing. ‘The Long-tails have got to be g
iven a taste of the lattee.’

  ‘I’m afraid I have to agree, Doughty,’ said Mr Burnham, nodding. ‘A timely dose of chastisement is always to the good.’

  ‘So you are convinced then,’ said Neel, ‘that your government will go to war?’

  ‘It may well come to that, alas,’ said Mr Burnham. ‘Britain has been nothing if not patient but there’s a limit to everything. Look at what the Celestials did to Lord Amherst. There he was, on the very threshold of Pekin, with a shipload of presents – and the Emperor wouldn’t so much as receive him.’

  ‘Oh, don’t speak of it, sir, it is not to be borne!’ said Mr Doughty indignantly. ‘Wanted his lordship to kowtow in public! Why, they’ll be asking us to grow long-tails next!’

  ‘And Lord Napier fared no better either,’ Mr Burnham reminded him. ‘The mandarins paid him no more attention than they would this chicken.’

  The mention of the bird drew Mr Doughty’s attention back to his food. ‘Speaking of chicken, sir,’ he murmured. ‘This certainly is a most excellent roast.’

  Neel’s eyes wandered back to the untouched bird on his own plate: even without tasting it, he could tell that it was a toothsome little morsel, but of course it was not his place to say so. ‘You are too generous in your praise, Mr Doughty,’ he said, in a flourish of hospitable self-deprecation, ‘it is no more than a verminous little creature, unworthy of such guests as yourselves.’

  ‘Verminous?’ said Zachary in sudden alarm. It was only now that he noticed that Neel had not touched any of the food that had been placed in front of him. Laying down his fork, he said: ‘But you haven’t touched your chicken, sir. Is it . . . is it not advisable, in this climate?’

  ‘No,’ said Neel, and quickly corrected himself. ‘I mean yes – it is perfectly advisable for yourself . . .’ He broke off, trying to think of a polite way to explain to the American why the chicken was forbidden to the Raja of Raskhali, but perfectly edible for an unclean foreigner. No words came to him, and in a mute plea for help, he glanced at the two Englishmen, both of whom were well aware of the dietary rules of the Halders. Neither of them would meet his gaze, but at length Mr Doughty made a bubbling sound, like a kettle coming to the boil. ‘Just eat the bish, you gudda,’ he hissed at Zachary. ‘He was only foozlowing.’