Opium Inc

During the lockdown of 2020 two good things happened to me. A. I read a lot of books in the silence of Calcutta. B. I did a lot of exercise and brought my HbA1C under strict control. The frenzy of reading ebbed a little with the lifting of lockdown. 2021 was not as productive in terms of reading speed. I barely finished a few financial books related to the stock market. Towards the end of 2021 I bought a book to learn about a subject that I had heard about vaguely but knew nothing much about. So out of a curiosity to learn about the trade and the wars that went with it I bought the book Opium Inc. It is a strictly non-fiction book on the international trade on opium and I did not make much progress in the immediate aftermath of the purchase. 

I finally managed to finish it a couple of days ago. This was achieved in a few sittings, mainly in the flight to and from Bangalore where I went to attend a battery exhibition. Although it has a very Roman Catholic name for an author, Thomas Manuel, he is very much Indian. Perhaps a Keralite or Goan. It's not important (though some people have an aversion towards Indian authors writing in English). The book is thoroughly researched and well written in a William Dalrymple style of (hi)story telling. 

The author digresses a lot from the main subject with interesting tid bits of information here and there but that's fine. They often add colour to the main story. The last few chapters, the ones that were added after his story of the British trade in opium ends, seem like an afterthought. As if he had to include them to add heft to the book and achieve a certain target in terms of number of pages. There is a chapter on opium in English literature also, where the author seems aloof and distant. History of literature is clearly not his forte.

But the main subject of opium trade in the far east is very well treated. The story does not have linear progression everywhere. It often goes back and forth but that's fine. I enjoyed the book and I am going to keep it for future reference. 

The book also has copious citations which can be useful if one attempts to research on the subject.

There is no mention of British institutions that are still active and apparently played a role in the opium trade. For example, I would be curious to know the role of HSBC in this trade. While the opium wars ended in 1840s, HSBC was set up in 1865 in Hong Kong. Obviously they benefited from the triangular trade in tea, silver and opium but there is no mention of it. 

What the book has done is rekindle my interest in reading. After this I pulled out the autobiography of Verrier Elwin last night and started reading it. I loved the writing style so much that I read up more than 30 pages or so in the first evening itself while Djokovic played his first Wimbeldon match of 22 in silent mode. 

The gentleman was a self taught anthropologist who came and settled in India and became an Indian citizen. He was born in Kent and educated at Oxford. He has done seminal work with the tribals of central India and North East.

This book is part of a fat book that contains three autobiographical books together. One is Jim Corbett's My India (not an autobiography but a collection of short real stories from his life), the second is Salim Ali's Fall of a Sparrow and the third is this. It is curated by Ramchandra Guha. 

I have read My India quite a few times. I could not finish Fall of a Sparrow because of the copious details on hunting and shooting and killing of birds - though Salim Ali is remembered as a conservationist and ornithologist. There is even a chapter on his rifle collection and which one is suitable for what type of game etc. If I remember correctly that is when I stopped reading the book. 

I have also avoided reading Corbett's hunting stories though to him hunting meant killing man eaters and he was revered in the mountains for this.

Once I finish this Elwin book I shall write a piece on the experience. It's more than 300 pages though.

Mamma's Boy

 The other day I went to get a hair cut. I think last Saturday. I saw a sight there that really disturbed me. There was a boy sitting on one of the barber's chairs and getting his face shaven. They were using a clip to shave him. He looked like a youngish boy of may be 18 or so. He was very fat. 

Thus far was fine. Nothing unusual about it. The thing that disturbed me was that his mother was standing next to him and giving instructions to the barber. I have seen many people getting shaved. Both young and old. But I have never seen an adult getting shaved under his mother's strict supervision at a public saloon (we call them saloons here in India - basically a barber shop). 

Rabindra Nath Tagore had written long ago - তিন কোটি সন্তানেরে হে মুগ্ধ জননী, রেখেছো বাঙালি করে মানুষ করো নি . This was written probably a hundred years ago. It means, "Oh my great Mother, you have kept 30 million of your sons as just Bengalis, not as proper human beings". This is so very true in our society even today. We have learnt nothing from these writings. 

I wonder how these boys will ever handle life when they step into real adulthood and try to make a living in this big bad world on their own. How will they ever live a happy married life? Actually they don't. We have such a sample in our larger family. He was somewhat similarly protected by his parents and then he grew up, got married but could not have a happy married life. His wife lived for a few years like an outsider, if not a maid, in their house and then left. 

Now that his parents have both died, he lives alone and just cannot live a normal life because he is incapable of it. He looks like a street lunatic, eating from street side pice hotels when he can afford it. Due to some legal complications with his estranged wife, he gets picked up by the police every once in a while and spends time in jail. In fact I think he lives a better life in jail than outside when free. Is this the life his parents wanted him to have? But they did not foresee this coming. We could all see this except his parents. 

My parents never went with me to the hair cutting saloon. When I was a small child the barber used to come to our house and give me a hair cut while I would sit on a wooden chair on the verandah outside. As soon as I turned 10/12 I started going to the saloons on my own. I still remember my father telling me before my maiden voyage to the local saloon. Be very careful not to doze off. Barbers often take advantage of your slumber and clean your pockets. Little did he realize that active little boys don't doze off so easily on the barber's chair.

I started going to school on my own when I was less than 11 years old. I learnt cycling on my own. I did a lot of things on my own and without any parental hand holding. I am really proud of that. I made a lot of mistakes but I learnt a lot as well.

My parents taught me to take pride in doing things on my own. They taught me to be independent. They taught me that being dependent on someone or something is not a desirable quality. I am forever grateful to them for teaching this all important lesson to me. 

I have consciously tried to inculcate this into my daughter's life. She took pride in being able to do the short commutes and local travels on her own. Recently she went to Delhi all alone by train. She is going to come back alone too. 

I so wanted to tell this mother all this. She is as good as throwing her son into a pond with his hands and feet both tied to stones. She has no idea what she is doing. But alas I could not do it. I dared not do it.

The Cute Plantlets

Last year I had brought home a spider plant from Mukherjee's Nursery. I think it was in August. I kept it on the window grill and watered it regularly. A few weeks ago it suddenly gave out a runner. Small flowers bloomed out of it and soon I realised small plantlets had developed out of those flowers. Before long two more runners came out with similar plantlets at the end.

In nature, the runners would droop down and the plantlets would find ground and grow into adult plants. But in my artificial garden it becomes incumbent upon me to adopt those plantlets as my children and help them find their feet. 

So I bought six little tubs. I bought soil, vermi compost etc. I even stole some construction sand from a nearby construction site and planted them the other day by preparing the potting soil first. Saturday 11th June, 2022 to be precise. Let me see how they grow. I kept one of them dipped in water as an experiment. If the roots grow I will repot them in a regular tub.

If they successfully grow out I have to find new homes for them. Perhaps gift them away to friends. Because at this rate of reproduction our house will soon become full of spider plants only. My cash expense in each plant is around Rs 20.