Later this afternoon, she is going to watch Ruth draw the next three birds for her new book — finch-billed bulbul (Spizixos semitorques, did you know, Maud, some of these are really good songsters?), hoopoe (Upupa epops) and the eared or snow pheasant (Crossoptilon crossoptilon, really too low for it to be here in Almora, how strange, it usually lives in Tibet and northern China, this really is very unusual, I shall have to write off to Mr Elliot immediately). Miss Gilby especially likes the hoopoe, and Ruth tells her quite a charming little story about how these birds had been given crowns by God for sheltering Solomon from the sun but they were killed for these crowns so often that they appealed to Solomon, who in turn prayed to God, and the crown was changed to the crest of feathers we see on their heads now. Miss Gilby is going to help Ruth with the accompanying illustrations of various individual feathers and vegetation, mostly leaves and flowers from the particular birds’ native habitats. They have collected some specimens of flowers and leaves from their rambles in the hills so that she can have them in front of her while practising the sketches. It still gives her an excited shiver of delight to think that she has a hand, however minor or marginal, in helping Ruth Fairweather create her glorious ornithological survey of the Indian Sub-Continent.
Ruth comes out, gives the letter to Maud, and takes her place in the chair beside her. It is indeed from James and feels quite substantial. She decides to open it now and only skim it, reserving the proper reading for later. Five sheets of close cursive hand. Local gossip, new governor of Madras, North Arcot politics. . she grazes inattentively. . shipping taxes, Mysore growing restive, Lady Ampthill’s latest. Then the name ‘Nikhilesh’ on page three makes her halt and retrace her eyes over the relevant area of the paper.
You might already know this but I thought there would be no harm in repeating that Nikhilesh, your zamindar in Nawabgunj, died in the Hindoo-Mohammedan riots, which erupted in his village very shortly after you left. (Thank the good Lord for that.) Apparently, a stray bullet got him while he was out trying to stop a riot. Must admit to feeling rotten when I found out about it. My first thought was. .
Miss Gilby neatly folds the letter and puts it away in a pocket. Ruth asks, ‘Everything all right?’ politely, perhaps because she has noticed the slight tremor of her friend’s hands. Miss Gilby nods and reaches for the binoculars on the little stone table between them. She looks through it and tries to find the brown eagle but it is gone. She can only see the snow-scarred slopes of the distant mountains, brought so close now by the glasses that she could reach out her hand and almost touch them.
A NOTE ON NAMES
Bengalis, as indeed most Indians, address each other relationally. An older brother is called dada, while someone who stands in such a relationship to the speaker would be addressed by his first name with the suffix — da. An older sister, similarly, is didi, and someone like an older sister is called by her name with the suffix — di. Mama is maternal uncle, mashi maternal aunt and dida maternal grandmother. Jamai is brother-in-law, jamaibabu, a respectful way of addressing an older brother-in-law, so didi’s husband would be called jamaibabu.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
It would not have been possible to write Miss Gilby’s story without Sumit Sarkar’s The Swadeshi Movement in Bengal 1903–1908 (People’s Publishing House: New Delhi, 1973, 2nd imprint, 1994). For those interested in the period and in the particulars of this chapter of colonial history, his still remains the most magisterial account: lucid, exhaustive, and deeply intelligent. I feel privileged to have taken some bearings from his work in writing my own.
Permission to quote from Cynthia Ozick in the epigraphs from author through David Miller at Rogers, Coleridge & White. Every effort has been made to obtain necessary permission with reference to copyright material. The publishers apologize if inadvertently any sources remain unacknowledged and will be happy to correct this in any future editions.