The Calcutta Chromosome

At around the same time that Murugan is dreaming, Sonali decides to go looking for Romen and calls a taxi to take her to Robinson Street. Upon arriving, she unlocks the gate and makes her way inside. It’s dark; she calls out to Romen, but nobody answers. Sonali then pulls out a small torch from her handbag and begins casting it into the large hallway ahead. The torchlight reveals mattresses, charpoys, and cooking utensils.

Sonali, of course, had been to the house before, with Romen. She therefore knows that a construction gang usually stays in the mansion while they are doing the renovations. They are from Nepal and bring their children with them. Sonali can see that their belongings are still here, but none of the workers are anywhere in sight. Sonali then catches a whiff of incense coming from the back of the mansion. As she makes her way towards the back, she begins to pick up the sound of drumming. Approaching a rickety stairwell, Sonali notices that the incense and drumming are coming from the top of the stairwell.

Holding the torch in her mouth, Sonali carefully makes her way up the stairwell. Upon reaching the top, she breathes a sigh of relief. Unfortunately, though, she has  placed the torch on a ledge, and accidentally knocks it off as she turns to find where the drumming is coming from. Sonali now has to find her way in the dark. As she tries to orient herself, Sonali sees a dull orange glow ahead of her. She crawls towards it on her hands and knees, until she comes across an arched doorway. This is the entrance to the largest room in the mansion, “a huge wood-paneled mirrored chamber that had once served as a reception room” (164).

Sonali begins to see, through the smoky glow, figures sitting cross-legged on the floor, with their backs to her. The whole room seems to be filled with people and they are chanting while keeping time the drums. Some are also beating small hand-held cymbals.

Sonali then remembers that there is a stairwell that leads up to a gallery overlooking the room. Making her way to the stairwell, she climbs up. The smoke from the incense is much heavier when she gets to the top, but the gallery is empty. The heavy smoke is making it hard to keep her eyes open, but she thrusts her head over to take a look. To her shock, Sonali sees the boy in the t-shirt who have been living with her these past few months. As she scans the crowd further, she sees a woman come out of the shadows. She looks familiar and is carrying a bamboo birdcage. Speaking to the crowd in archaic Bengali, she says “the time is here, pray that all goes well for our Laakhan, once again” (167). Sonali tries to get a better look and catches a glimpse of a body lying on the floor—then a flash of metal and blood flying up. Her head crashes on the floor and everything goes dark.

Calcutta: August 1995. It’s early morning and Urmila is at wits end. She has done her household chores and is keeping an eye out for the fish-seller. She is concerned that he will not show up in in time and that she will have to go to the market to purchase some fish. This will likely make her late for her press conference with the minister. Urmila becomes more and more anxious and decides she will have no choice but to go to market. Just as she’s about to leave, the doorbell rings and a young man is standing there, wearing a green t-shirt. To Urmila, he looks too young to be a vendor, yet to her surprise, he has come to sell her some fish.

Urmila does not recognize the fish-seller, who assures her that the fish is fresh. The fish-seller tells Urmila that he sells to Haldar’s house next door and shows the big fish he is putting aside for them. Urmila wants those fish, but the fish-seller says no, and offers her another one instead. Urmila agrees. After she retrieves some money, the fish-seller hands her the fish wrapped up in bits of paper and stuffed into a plastic bag. Urmila is unhappy that the fish-seller has wrapped the fish up. When Urmila dumps out the fish onto a plate, she sees that bits of paper are stuck to the fish. She tries to scrub the paper off the fish, but that only makes things worse.

Glancing into the plastic bag, Urmila sees it is full of paper, as well. She dumps out the paper onto the counter and notices that one of the papers is a copy of the Colonial Services Gazette, dated January 12, 1898. One of the announcements on the paper reads; “Leave approved for Surgeon-Colonel D. D. Cunningham, Presidency General Hospital, Calcutta, 10–15 January” (178). A second page that Urmila looks at seems more puzzling. It has the logo of the South-Western Railways, and is dated January 10, 1898. A list of passenger names is given, including the name C. C. Dunn., strangely similar to the name she read on the first page. Urmila then spreads out one more page. This page is also from the Colonial Services Gazette, and is dated January 30, 1898. The paper announces that D. D. Cunningham is on leave pending his retirement, and will be replaced by Ronald Ross of the Indian Medical Service. Urmila then sees that the fish has turned into a stinking mess.

Urmila is angry. She no longer cares what time it is or whether she makes the press conference. Stuffing the fish into the plastic bag, she grabs the paper and marches out the door in her grease-spattered sari. Urmila doesn’t like being cheated and is going to find the fish-seller. However, the fish-seller is nowhere to be found. Intent on finding him, Urmila marches out of her apartment complex and down the street.

Without realizing it, she finds herself in front of the Haldar mansion. The fish-seller mentioned he was going there, so Urmila decides she’s going to go in and find him. A gatekeeper attempts to stop her, telling her there is no fish-seller at the mansion. Urmila merely steps around him, the gatekeeper now shouting at her. Hearing the shouts, an elderly man, Haldar’s secretary, comes out of the house and asks Urmila what she wants. She tells them she wants to see Romen Haldar to ask him about the fish-seller. The secretary tells Urmila the same thing the gatekeeper told her: there is no fish-seller.

As for Romen Haldar, they don’t know where he is—he’s disappeared and has already missed two appointments. Urmila then tells them that Haldar is supposed to come to their place for dinner. The secretary claims Urmila is mad or dreaming, telling her that Haldar is booked on a flight to Bombay this evening. Urmila does not believe them, and tries to shake free the gatekeeper’s grip, only to stumble and fall face first to the gravel path below.

Urmila wakes up and finds she is lying in the shade at the Haldar mansion. Her vision is blurred and her head is spinning, but she is able to make out a large shape hovering above her. A voice is shouting in her ear, and someone is fanning her with a newspaper. The voice sounds familiar, and is asking her where she got the papers from. Urmila asks who the man is, and he tells her that they met at the auditorium the other day, and that his name is L. Murugan. Murugan can’t recall Urmila’s name either, but he tells her that he knows she works for Calcutta magazine.

Urmila asks Murugan why he’s there, and he tells her he came to ask Haldar for permission to look at his Robinson Street property. Of more pressing concern for Murugan is the paper that he’s found on Urmila. He needs to know where she got them. Urmila snatches the paper from Murugan’s hand and makes it clear to him that these papers are hers. Murugan tries to grab them back, while at the same time insisting that they have nothing to do with her. Urmila decides to stuff the papers into the front of her blouse.

Frustrated, Murugan tells Urmila that these papers might be the key to one of the mysteries of the century. Urmila asks why are the papers so important, but Murugan tells her that he just wants to save her the trouble of flushing them down the toilet and demands she hand the papers back to him. She refuses and gets up to leave. Murugan then decides that if it’s an explanation that Urmila wants, she will have to come with him to the hospital.