The Hungry Tide - Amitav Ghosh [97]
Kanai had been translating continuously as Piya was speaking, and when he finished, Moyna gave a loud gasp and covered her face with her hands.
“Was the money not enough?” Piya asked Kanai anxiously.
“Not enough?” Kanai said. “Can’t you see Moyna’s overjoyed? This is a windfall for them. I’m sure they really need the money.”
“And what does Fokir say? Will he be able to arrange for a launch?”
Kanai paused to listen. “He says yes, he’ll do it; he’ll start making the arrangements right away. But there are no motorboats here. You’ll have to use a bhotbhoti.”
“What’s that?”
“That’s what diesel boats are called in these parts,” said Kanai. “They’re named for the hammering sound of their engines.”
“I don’t care what kind of boat it is,” said Piya. “The thing is, can he arrange for one?”
“Yes,” said Kanai, “he’ll arrange for one to be here tomorrow. You can look it over.”
“Does he know the owner?”
“Yes. It belongs to someone who’s like a father to him.”
Piya recalled her last experience of hiring a launch and the trouble she had had with the forest guard and his relative. She said, “Do you think this man will be reliable?”
“Yes,” said Kanai with a nod. “I know the man, actually. His name is Horen Naskor. He used to work for my uncle too. I can vouch for him.”
“OK, then.”
Glancing at Fokir, Piya saw there was a grin on his face now, and for a moment it was as though he had once again become the man she had known on the boat, not the sullen, resentful creature he evidently was on land. She could not tell whether it was the prospect of being back on the water that had lifted his spirits or the possibility of escaping from whatever it was that so weighed him down in his home; it was enough that she had been able to offer him something that mattered, whatever it was.
“Listen, Piya.” Kanai nudged her with his elbow. “Moyna has a question for you.”
“Yes?”
“She wants to know why a highly educated scientist like you needs the help of her husband — someone who doesn’t even know how to read and write.”
Piya frowned, puzzling over this. Could Moyna really be as dismissive of her husband as her question seemed to imply? Or was she trying to suggest that Piya should hire someone else? But there was no one else she wanted to work with — especially if the alternatives were men like the forest guard.
“Could you please tell Moyna,” Piya said to Kanai, “that her husband knows the river well. His knowledge can be of help to a scientist like myself.”
When this was explained, Moyna responded with a retort sharp enough to draw a laugh from Kanai.
“Why are you laughing?” said Piya.
“She’s clever, this girl,” said Kanai.
“Why? What did she say?”
“She made a funny little play on the word gyan, which means ‘knowledge,’ and gaan, which means ‘song.’ She said that her life would be a lot easier if her husband had a little more gyan and a little less gaan.”
HABITS
Nilima was none too pleased by Kusum’s visit. That evening, she said to me, “Do you know that Kusum came to see me today? She was trying to get me involved with that business in Morichjhãpi. They want the Trust to help them set up some medical facilities there.”
“So what did you say?”
“I told them there’s nothing we could do,” Nilima said in her flattest, most unyielding voice.
“Why can’t you help them?” I protested. “They’re human beings; they need medical attention as much as people do anywhere else.”
“Nirmal, it’s impossible,” she said. “Those people are squatters;