The Calcutta Chromosome
Amitav Ghosh
Contributed by Jama Rearick
Chapter 4
Summary

The setting is a Thai restaurant, some time before August 1995. Antar asks Murugan if he has any ideas about who Lutchman is. Murugan replies by suggesting that Lutchman is “the point-man for whoever was the real brains behind the scheme” (87). Murugan points to a diary by one J. W. D. Grigson, a linguistic surveyor who stayed for a few days at the guest house that Ross is staying at.

What Murugan surmises from the diary is that Grigson gets the sense that something is off about Lutchman. Grigson tries a little experiment by addressing him as Lutchman, instead of “boy” or “bearer.” He immediately notices a slight delay in Lutchman’s response—the type of delay that occurs when a person responds to a name that is not really their own. Grigson also believes that his name is not really Lutchman, but Laakhan, Lokhkhon, or Lakshman, depending on what part of the country he’s from. Although Grigson notes that Ross knows little about Lutchman, Grigson believes Lutchman hails from much farther north, given the way he speaks. Grigson also notices that Lutchman’s left hand has no thumb.

Grigson then decides to see where Lutchman lives, making note of a big metal lantern hanging in his window in the servant’s quarters. Later that evening, he decides to go back to the servant’s quarters. He knocks on Lutchman’s door, who lets him in: “The only light in the room comes from the lamp in the window [...] This is no ordinary lamp. It’s big, it’s strong, it’s sturdy, it’s got a long handle, and it’s got a small circular pane of red glass” (92). Grigson quickly realizes that it’s a railway signal lamp, used to stop trains, and not a type you can buy at the local store. Grigson tries to ask Lutchman about the lamp, but Lutchman evades the question, telling Grigson that the light is simply called a “lantern.” This confirms Grigson’s suspicions because Lutchman pronounces the word “lalten,” instead of “lantern.” He then tells Lutchman that he knows his name is really Laakhan.

Lutchman responds by asking Grigson to follow him as he runs out the door carrying his lamp. They head for the station, but Grigson has a hard time keeping up; after a short while, he can see only the red light of the lamp bobbing up and down. Grigson realizes he's no longer running on grass. He then hears the whistle of a train bearing down on him and realizes he’s in danger. At the last second, he manages to jump out of the way of the train. He no longer sees the red lamp, and knows that Lutchman was trying to kill him. Grigson leaves Secunderabad the next morning.

Calcutta: August 1995. Sonali and Urmila are just entering Sonali’s building. Upon entering Sonali’s flat, they are surprised to find the lights off. A boy who cooks and cleans for her, is usually home watching TV, but when Sonali goes to check his bedroom, she finds everything is gone, including the printed t-shirts he always wears. As Sonali tells Urmila, the boy had been recommended by Romen.

The phone rings, and it’s someone asking if Romen Haldar is there. Sonali is surprised, because only his secretary ever telephones him at Sonali’s place. She then asks who is calling, but the person on the other line tells her “it doesn’t matter” (99), and hangs up.

Sonali then calls the Wicket Club, where Romen often went, but they say he’d left half an hour ago. Romen had been there all evening, and had tried to call Sonali. She is then informed that Romen also sent his driver home, and had called for a taxi. He was heard telling the taxi driver to take him to Robinson Street, but not before stopping at Park Circus. This is where Phulboni lives. According to Sonali, Romen hadn’t mentioned anything about seeing Phulboni.

While they wait to see if Romen is still coming, Urmila asks Sonali if she has ever heard Phulboni mention Laakhan.

The scene shifts back to the restaurant, sometime before August 1995. Antar tells Murugan that he doesn’t have a shred of evidence, or proof of anything. Murugan suggests that the evidence is the fact that there is no evidence—that it’s about the secrecy. Antar, however, remains skeptical.

Murugan decides to sketch out a scenario. He supposes another team had also been working on the malaria parasite at the same time as Ross, and they weren’t using methods in the way that most scientists were trained, but they made progress anyway. They suddenly discover that they’ve reached a dead end and their methods couldn’t take them any farther because they didn’t have the right equipment. They know the next big step is a mutation in the parasite, and they know that the only way they can speed this process up is to find conventional scientists to push it. This is where Ross came in, according to Murugan.

Murugan tells Antar that they can’t tell Ross what they know, because their religion prevents it. Instead, they have to secretly guide him in the right direction. Antar, though, wonders why these people would even bother, and what they could possibly get out of it, especially if it’s not the fame and fortune they are letting Ross claim. Murugan then suggests to Antar that maybe this other team was after something bigger, something more revolutionary, something that every human being has thought of: immortality.

Murugan qualifies what he means by telling Antar that he’s really talking about “a technology for interpersonal transference” (107). Murugan suddenly gets in the face of the waiter and shouts at him, causing the waiter to drop a plate, then does the same to Antar, catching Antar off-guard by this change in behavior. Murugan then relaxes and tells Antar that it’s merely an experiment to demonstrate how a person responds is intrinsic to their own motor reactions, and that such information can be transmitted chromosomally from one person to another, body to body: “Just think, a fresh start: when your body fails you, you leave it, you migrate—you or at least a matching symptomology of yourself” (109).Murugan adds, “What would you give for that, Ant: a technology that lets you improve on yourself in your next incarnation?” (109).

A number of waiters then converge on Murugan and forcefully carry him out of the restaurant, though not without Murugan telling Antar that this is the reason he has to go to Calcutta: to find the Calcutta chromosome.

Calcutta: August 1995. Urmila is explaining to Sonali that she had done some research on Phulboni as a young man, and had discovered that he had written “a set of stories called the Laakhan Stories” (110). They focused on a character called Laakhan, and in each of the stories, Laakhan was someone different: a postman in one, a village schoolmaster in another, and so on. Sonali found the writing quite odd. Urmila indicated there was more, however, as Urmila had also mentioned the stories to Mrs. Aratounian, and she had suggested that they were a message to someone.

Sonali then remembered that something strange had happened to Phulboni when he was in his twenties, and that it was connected to Laakhan. Sonali told Urmila that it began after her mother asked Phulboni why he had given up shooting, since he was a very good shot. Sonali noted that Phulboni had been a regular in their home, “a splendid-looking man; over six feet tall, straight and lean as a lamp-post” (112).

Phulboni used to work for a British firm, the Palmer Brothers, but quit when he started writing. He had taken the pen-name Phulboni in honor of the language of the local people from the Orissa jungle region where he had grown up. This is where he had learned to shoot.

Sonali then went on to tell Urmila that it was when her mother was performing Marie Antoinette on stage on the outskirts of Calcutta that she saw Phulboni. They began to walk through the fairgrounds and came upon a stall where one can shoot balloons with an air gun. Sonali began to tease Phulboni, trying to get him to shoot some balloons. She was too astonished to see that he never missed, no matter how far back he stepped. Sonali’s mother had asked Phulboni how he learned to shoot like that. Having consumed a lot of rum, he told her the story. The next day, however, he was upset and made her promise to never tell anyone.

After that, Sonali’s mother told her that as Phulboni’s fame grew, his behavior became stranger and stranger: “He’d get drunk and wander the streets all night as if he was looking for something: I’ve heard he still does” (114). He eventually stopped seeing them, and did not even visit Sonali’s mother when she was dying. It was just before her mother died that she told Sonali the story that Phulbani had told her years before.

Analysis

These chapters follow a similar pattern to the previous chapters, as the narrative shifts back and forth between New York and Calcutta. However, each of these chapters is set in 1995, separated by just a few months between the events that unfold. The backdrop is once again the Thai restaurant, sometime before August 1995. Antar is asking Murugan if he knows who Lutchman is. Murugan refers back to a diary written by J. W.D. Grigson, who stayed at the same guesthouse as Ross. Grigson was a linguist, and thought how Lutchman said “lalten” instead of pronouncing it “lantern,” as well as the fact that Lutchman hesitated when addressed by the name Lutchman, suggesting he was from much farther north. Grigson surmised his name was probably “Laakhan.” He also mentioned how his left hand had only four fingers and no thumb. Lutchman apparently tried to kill Grigson by luring him into the path of an oncoming train.

The narrative then moves to Calcutta, where Sonali and Urmila have just arrived at Sonali’s apartment. Sonali is surprised that no one is home, particularly the boy who usually cooks and cleans for her. He apparently has left, taking his printed t- shirts with him. Romen has not yet arrived, and Sonali becomes concerned after receiving a phone call asking if Roman is there. She then calls the Wicket Club, and is told Romen had left to go to the Robinson Street mansion, but would be stopping at Phulboni’s place first. Sonali decides to wait for Romen, and is asked by Urmila if Phulboni had ever mentioned the name “Laakhan.” At this point, we begin to see the threads being connected over time, and how the name Laakhan is becoming more and more central to the story.

A few months prior, back in New York, Antar had told Murugan that he was still skeptical about Murugan’s version of the story about Ross. Murugan decides to sketch out a scenario of how these unknown persons needed Ross, because they had reached a dead end in their scientific methods. They knew that a mutation in the parasite was the next step, but they needed a scientist who could make it happen, and Ross was that man. They can’t tell Ross what to do, and instead only guide him, because what they are after is a form of immortality—more precisely, a transference of personality from one body to another. To tell Ross about it would be to change the nature of the experiment, and therefore alter the intended outcome. Secrecy is the key to making it happen, and this secrecy drives the narrative.

Later, back in Sonali’s apartment, Urmila tells her how she had done some research and had discovered that Phulboni had written some stories called the Laakhan stories. The stories were about a man who seemed to assume different identities. Sonali then remembered that something strange had happened to Phulboni when he was younger, and that after the event, as his fame grew, he began to wander the streets searching for something. While Sonali does not go into the story at this stage, it’s clear that this mysterious person named Laakhan has affected the behavior and thinking of key characters in this narrative, despite the fact that we have yet to be formally introduced to the character.

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