“The Calcutta Chromosome” by Amitav Ghosh
A novel about a disease and how India shaped it.
Years ago when I was browsing the shelves of my school library, awaiting my turn for a debate competition, my eyes chanced upon a fish.
The fish lay plastered on a book by Amitav Ghosh. I thought that the book would be one about fishing or perhaps a sea voyage and before I could pick it up to find out whether my reductionist connection of a fish to the sea was right, my turn was announced.
Now, as I prepare to teach this novel to my students as part of their science-fiction paper, I find myself pleasantly mistaken.
This novel is not about a fish.
Far from it.
It may be about a mosquito.
Science-Fiction as Reflection
Ursula K Le. Guin, in her excellent introduction to an anniversary edition of The Left Hand of Darkness, stamped a powerful utterance: “Science-fiction is not predictive, it is descriptive.” It is certainly valid to see the technology in Star-Trek and Star Wars manifest themselves around us today, but the social core of science-fiction is one that echoes the problems of today- safely enmeshing it in a galaxy far, far away.
What Amitav Ghosh does well in this book though, is put a fitting Indian spin on the genre.
Of course, one would be easily mistaken to think that the genre is an originally Western one that Indian writers are only just warming up to. An international conference on Science Fiction Studies which I attended a couple of months ago opened my eyes to just how old the genre is in India and how regional languages have a strong grip on it, producing meaningful works which take forward Indian concerns and themes.
The Reader as Detective
This book is also described as a medical thriller, a genre that caught even more attention as the globe battled the COVID-19 pandemic. Reading it reminded me of another vital power of postmodern fiction- involving the reader in the construction of the narrative.
This is a feat that divides several readers. Many come to fiction to escape from an already confusing world and would prefer a simple narrative that is linear and gets to the point. This book is not like that. It instead takes to the core the reader’s ability to spot hints and stitch the tale together, even as the central characters appear woefully ignorant of several details as the chapters flick between two separate time spaces.
In my previous newsletter, I savoured the “what-if” questions which choreograph several incredible works of literature. This book functions on the simple what-if of playing around with the historical discovery of how malaria is transmitted by mosquitoes and what-if this discovery was more of a nudge.
In a world where attention spans are rapidly getting fractured, I fear for the future of such works. A novel as a cerebral, challenging experience to the reader who functions as a de-facto detective is at the core of making reading an exercise in critical thinking. Will it survive? That query may be explored in a future newsletter about the very future of the “book” as an entity.
Feel free to discover The Calcutta Chromosome. To follow this newsletter, your average array of chromosomes will suffice. To think and approach this novel, a little effort will be needed, but trust me, the feverish ride will be worth it.