The Calcutta Chromosome

Sonali wakes to the sound of rain blowing in through the flapping shudders. She is lying on the floor and can barely open her eyes. She does not know where she is or how long she’s been here. In the distance, she can hear street noises, but everything is quiet in her vicinity. There’s a metallic creaking, followed by the sound of a heavy swinging gate. Footsteps follow. Sonali turns over and discovers she’s lying in a narrow wooden gallery overlooking a room. She looks down, and there is a twilight glow revealing “a small pile of ashes and half-burnt twigs at the far end of the cavernous room” (290). She begins to remember everything, “the staircase, the noise, the smoke, the crowd of people, gathered around the body” (290). The room is empty.

Sonali hears the footsteps inside, then hears a man’s voice, then a woman’s voice, both somewhere below. “There’s no one here” (291), says a familiar voice. It’s Urmila.

Urmila and Murugan help Sonali down the ladder. Sonali is crying, struggling to speak, trying to tell them what happened. Urmila calms her down and asks Sonali why she’s in the building. Sonali tells them about taking a taxi to the building and looking for Romen, about climbing into the gallery, about the smoke, the people, the boy, the woman in the sari, the fire, and the body. Sonali then tells how the woman then touched the body and called him Laakhan, and that she saw, just before she passed out, that it was Romen. Murugan abruptly interrupts and asks Sonali if she recognized the woman. At first Sonali is unsure, but slowly it begins to come back to her: it was Mrs. Aratounian

New York: sometime in the future. Antar wakes up soaked in sweat and his throat is burning. He gets up to go the kitchen, but his legs are weak and he’s shaking all over. He pulls himself through the doorway and then pauses near his living room; he feels a presence nearby. Sure enough, in the middle of the living room is the holographic projection of naked man. He is in handcuffs, “his upper body encrusted with dead leaves and straw, and his thighs […] caked with mud and excrement” (294). A voice cries out, reminding Antar that he had asked to see the man. Antar skirts around the projection and makes his way to Ava’s control panel, as the voice shouts: “why have you kept me waiting so long?” (294). Antar touches Ava’s keyboard and the man’s torso vanishes, leaving only a vastly enlarged head that reminds Antar of an old medieval painting “of a beheaded saint, holding his own dripping head” (295). The head then asks Antar if he wants to know what happened to Murugan. Antar says he does.

Calcutta: August 1995. The rain is coming down hard as Urmila, Sonali, and Murugan are leaving the old mansion. They hurry to get to the gate of Mrs. Aratounian’s building. Murugan is the first to get there and falls over one of two bamboo pushcarts standing in the narrow driveway, blocking the entranceway. Urmila and Sonali arrive just as Murugan is rubbing his knees. Urmila slips past the carts and sees two men standing beside a large piece of furniture; three other men suddenly appear carrying a large sofa. The furniture is clearly Mrs. Aratounian’s. Urmila asks, “What’s happening?” (298). One of the men tells them that someone is moving, and they’re just carrying away the furniture.

Urmila runs to the elevator and motions Sonali and Murugan to follow. When they arrive on the fourth floor, they see Mrs. Aratounian’s door wide open and the nameplates removed. Inside, almost everything is gone; two men are walking out with sacks almost bursting at the seams. Murugan darts to his room and discovers that everything there has been removed, as well, including his laptop, his clothes, and his suitcase.

“A thin, bespectacled man, in a fraying shirt and trousers” (299) startles them, and wants to know what they’re doing in the apartment. Urmila poses the same question to him. He does not reply, but becomes preoccupied with Sonali-das, explaining that he’s one of the founders of the Bansdroni Film Society, and that Sonali is one of the biggest stars. Urmila presses the man and he tells them that Mrs. Aratounian is gone, though he does not know where. Murugan then asks where all her stuff is, and where his suitcase and laptop are. The man tells him that Mrs. Aratounian sold everything to the “New Russell Exchange” (301), of which he is the “clerk in charge of collections and evaluations” (301).

Murugan then mentions how just this morning, everything was still here. The clerk, however, makes it clear that these arrangements had been made a year ago, to the day. When Murugan mentions his laptop and suitcase could not have been included on that list, as he just arrived the other day, the clerk shows him the list, indicating a suitcase, travel articles, and electronic equipment. A frustrated Murugan wonders as to how Mrs. Aratounian could have known that he would come here, when he, himself, had no idea a year ago that he would be here.

Regaining his composure, Murugan asks the clerk if Mrs. Aratounian left any papers. There was nothing, he tells them, except the paper he used for Sonali’s autograph. The paper reveals that Mrs. Aratounian was catching a train to Renupur at Sealdah station at 8:30, and if anyone asks, that is what he is to tell him. Urmila looks at the clerk’s watch and sees that it’s 7:45. They must hurry and try and get a taxi. As they leave, Urmila asks the clerk why he didn’t tell them sooner. The clerk says he thought the message was for Phulboni, who had been here a short while ago. As they’re leaving, Urmila suggests to Sonali that she doesn’t have to come with them. Sonali then reveals that Phulboni is her father.

A taxi lurches around the corner and onto Park Street. In the taxi, Murugan asks Urmila to promise to take him across if he can’t make it on his own, and that she won’t leave him behind. Uncertain about what Murugan is driving at, Urmila tries to reassure him by reminding him that he’s the only one who knows what’s really going on, and that someone had gone out of their way to ensure that he would make the connections. However, Murugan points out that he’s just the one who put it all together, and that in all likelihood the package is for someone waiting in the future. In fact, Murugan thinks he should be asking Urmila about who the package is for, considering that Urmila is the one she has chosen. Urmila gasps, “For what?” (307). “For herself” (307), Murugan replies. Murugan then falls to his knees and begs Urmila not forget him, and to write him into the script. Urmila just laughs, puts a hand on Murugan’s head and an arm around Sonali’s shoulders, and says, “Don’t worry…I’ll take you both with me, wherever I go” (308).

The holographic head of Murugan asks Antar if he remembers him. Antar replies that he does. Murugan says, “I’ve waited a long time to get in touch with you. I figured nothing would be quite as quick as that ID card” (309). Antar asks Murugan where he’s been, telling him that people have been looking for him for years. Murugan suggests that if Antar wants to know, all he has to do is pick up his Simultaneous Visualization headgear: “it’s all in there, waiting for you to hit the button” (310).

Antar puts on the headgear, taps a key, and a man suddenly appears. It’s Murugan, wearing khaki trousers and a green baseball cap. In the background, dark threatening clouds are approaching, and a minibus shoots by, spraying water from a puddle and causing Murugan to run. Antar notes that someone had started loading the Sim/Vis system at the same time that Ava had found Murugan’s ID card. Antar then sees Murugan standing in the lobby of an auditorium with two women that Antar recognizes as Tara and Maria. Suddenly a hand lightly touches Antar’s shoulder, and he reaches to remove the headgear. The hand restrains his wrists and a voice that Antar recognizes as Tara’s whispers to him, “Keep watching; we’re here; we’re all with you” (311). Antar began to hear voices in both his room and in his head, a crowd of voices all saying “we’re with you; you’re not alone; we'll help you across” (311). Suddenly, Antar feels a relief and “sighed like he hadn’t sighed in years” (311).