Read Online The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai - Free Book Online
Authors: Kiran Desai
Tags: Fiction
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sisters would call from inside, sitting up in their beds, wrapped in Kulu shawls, sipping Sikkimese brandy, BBC news sputtering on the radio, falling over them in sparky explosions.
"Budhoo?"
" Huzoor! "
They would return to the BBC then, and later, sometimes, to their small black-and-white television, when Doordarshan provided the treat of To the Manor Born or Yes, Minister, featuring gentlemen with faces like moist, contented hams. With Budhoo on the roof fiddling with the aerial, the sisters shouted to him out of the window, "Right, left, no, back," as he swayed, poor fellow, amid the tree branches and moths, the outfall of messy Kalimpong weather.
At intervals through the night Budhoo also marched about Mon Ami, banging a stick and blowing a whistle so Lola and Noni could hear him and feel safe until the mountains once again shimmered in pure 24k and they woke to the powdery mist burning off in the sun.
________
But they had trusted Budhoo for no reason whatsoever. He might murder them in their nighties—
"But if we dismiss him," said Noni, "then he’ll be angry and twice as likely to do something."
"I tell you, these Neps can’t be trusted. And they don’t just rob. They think absolutely nothing of murdering, as well."
________
"Well," sighed Lola, "it was bound to happen, really. Been brewing a long time.
When has this been a peaceful area? When we moved to Mon Ami, the whole of Kalimpong was upside down, remember? Nobody knew who was a spy and who wasn’t. Beijing had just named Kalimpong a hotbed of anti-Chinese activity. . . ."
Monks had streamed through the forests, garnet lines of fire pouring down the mountains, as they escaped from Tibet along the salt and wool trade routes.
Aristocrats had arrived, too, Lhasa beauties dancing waltzes at the Gymkhana Ball, amazing the locals with their cosmopolitan style.
But for a long while there had been severe food shortages, as there always were when political trouble arrived on the hillside.
________
"We had better run to the market, Noni. It will empty out. And our library books!
We must change them."
"I won’t last the month," said Lola. "Almost through," she thumped A Bend in the River, "uphill task—"
"Superb writer," said Noni. "First-class. One of the best books I’ve ever read."
"Oh, I don’t know," Lola said, "I think he’s strange. Stuck in the past. . . . He has not progressed. Colonial neurosis, he’s never freed himself from it. Quite a different thing now. In fact," she said, "chicken tikka masala has replaced fish and chips as the number one take-out dinner in Britain. It was just reported in the Indian Express.
"Tikka masala," she repeated. "Can you believe it?" She imagined the English countryside, castles, hedgerows, hedgehogs, etc., and tikka masala whizzing by on buses, bicycles, Rolls-Royces. Then she imagined a scene in To the Manor Born :"Oh Audrey. How perfectly lovely! Chicken tikka masala! Yes, and I got us some basmati as well. I do think it’s the best rice, don’t you?"
"Well, I don’t like to agree with you, but maybe you have a point," Noni conceded. "After all, why isn’t he writing of where he lives now? Why isn’t he taking up, say, race riots in Manchester?"
"Also the new England, Noni. A completely cosmopolitan society. Pixie, for example, doesn’t have a chip on her shoulder."
________
Pixie, Lola’s daughter, was a BBC reporter, and now and then Lola visited her and came back making everyone sick, refusing to shut up: "Super play, and oh, the strawberries and cream. . . . And ah, the strawberries and cream. . . ."
________
"My! What strawberries and cream, my dear, and out in the most lovely garden,"
Noni mimicked her sister. "As if you can’t get strawberries and cream in Kalimpong!" she said, then. "And you can eat without having to mince your words and behave like a pig on high heels."
"Dreadful legs those English girls have," said Uncle Potty, who had been present at the
"Budhoo?"
" Huzoor! "
They would return to the BBC then, and later, sometimes, to their small black-and-white television, when Doordarshan provided the treat of To the Manor Born or Yes, Minister, featuring gentlemen with faces like moist, contented hams. With Budhoo on the roof fiddling with the aerial, the sisters shouted to him out of the window, "Right, left, no, back," as he swayed, poor fellow, amid the tree branches and moths, the outfall of messy Kalimpong weather.
At intervals through the night Budhoo also marched about Mon Ami, banging a stick and blowing a whistle so Lola and Noni could hear him and feel safe until the mountains once again shimmered in pure 24k and they woke to the powdery mist burning off in the sun.
________
But they had trusted Budhoo for no reason whatsoever. He might murder them in their nighties—
"But if we dismiss him," said Noni, "then he’ll be angry and twice as likely to do something."
"I tell you, these Neps can’t be trusted. And they don’t just rob. They think absolutely nothing of murdering, as well."
________
"Well," sighed Lola, "it was bound to happen, really. Been brewing a long time.
When has this been a peaceful area? When we moved to Mon Ami, the whole of Kalimpong was upside down, remember? Nobody knew who was a spy and who wasn’t. Beijing had just named Kalimpong a hotbed of anti-Chinese activity. . . ."
Monks had streamed through the forests, garnet lines of fire pouring down the mountains, as they escaped from Tibet along the salt and wool trade routes.
Aristocrats had arrived, too, Lhasa beauties dancing waltzes at the Gymkhana Ball, amazing the locals with their cosmopolitan style.
But for a long while there had been severe food shortages, as there always were when political trouble arrived on the hillside.
________
"We had better run to the market, Noni. It will empty out. And our library books!
We must change them."
"I won’t last the month," said Lola. "Almost through," she thumped A Bend in the River, "uphill task—"
"Superb writer," said Noni. "First-class. One of the best books I’ve ever read."
"Oh, I don’t know," Lola said, "I think he’s strange. Stuck in the past. . . . He has not progressed. Colonial neurosis, he’s never freed himself from it. Quite a different thing now. In fact," she said, "chicken tikka masala has replaced fish and chips as the number one take-out dinner in Britain. It was just reported in the Indian Express.
"Tikka masala," she repeated. "Can you believe it?" She imagined the English countryside, castles, hedgerows, hedgehogs, etc., and tikka masala whizzing by on buses, bicycles, Rolls-Royces. Then she imagined a scene in To the Manor Born :"Oh Audrey. How perfectly lovely! Chicken tikka masala! Yes, and I got us some basmati as well. I do think it’s the best rice, don’t you?"
"Well, I don’t like to agree with you, but maybe you have a point," Noni conceded. "After all, why isn’t he writing of where he lives now? Why isn’t he taking up, say, race riots in Manchester?"
"Also the new England, Noni. A completely cosmopolitan society. Pixie, for example, doesn’t have a chip on her shoulder."
________
Pixie, Lola’s daughter, was a BBC reporter, and now and then Lola visited her and came back making everyone sick, refusing to shut up: "Super play, and oh, the strawberries and cream. . . . And ah, the strawberries and cream. . . ."
________
"My! What strawberries and cream, my dear, and out in the most lovely garden,"
Noni mimicked her sister. "As if you can’t get strawberries and cream in Kalimpong!" she said, then. "And you can eat without having to mince your words and behave like a pig on high heels."
"Dreadful legs those English girls have," said Uncle Potty, who had been present at the
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