V. Naipaul - The Mystic Masseur

‘These books is different books,’ Ganesh said.

Bissoon picked up the book from the floor and looked through it. ‘You right. Handle poetry — it go surprise you how much people in Trinidad does write poetry — and I handle essays and thing, but I never handle a kyatechism before. Still, is experience. Gimme nine cents commission. Remember, if any sort of printed matter could sell in Trinidad, Bissoon is the man to sell it. Gimme thirty of your kyatechisms to start off with. Mark you, I warning you now that I don’t think they go sell.’

When Bissoon had left, The Great Belcher said, ‘He have a hand. He go sell the books.’

And even Leela was cheerful. ‘Is a sign. Is the first sign I ever believe in. Is Bissoon who sell those books to Pa. Is those books that put the idea of authoring in your head. And is Bissoon who selling them for you. Is a sign.’

‘Is more than a sign,’ Ganesh said. ‘Anybody who could sell a book to your father could sell milk to a cow.’

But secretly he too believed it was a good sign.

Beharry and Suruj Mooma could not hide their disappointment at the poor reception of the book.

‘Don’t let them worry you,’ Suruj Mooma said. ‘Is just jealous they jealous in Trinidad. I still think is a good book. Already it have some question and answer Suruj know off by heart.’

‘It have a lot in what Suruj Mooma say,’ Beharry said judiciously. ‘But I feel the real trouble is that Trinidad just ain’t ready for that sort of book. They ain’t educated enough.’

‘Hah!’ And Ganesh gave a short dry laugh. ‘They want a book that look big. Once it look big they think it good.’

‘Perhaps they want more than a booklet,’ Beharry ventured.

‘Look,’ Ganesh said sharply. ‘Is a damn good book , you hear.’

Beharry, growing bolder, nibbled energetically. ‘I don’t think you go really deep enough.’

‘You think I should throw out another one at they head?’

‘Companion volume,’ Beharry said.

Ganesh was silent for a while. ‘ More Questions and Answers on the Hindu Religion ,’ he dreamed aloud.

‘ More Questions and Answers ,’ Beharry said, ‘ Companion Volume to 101 Questions and Answers .’

‘You make it sound good, man, Beharry.’

‘Well, write it, man. Write it.’

Before Ganesh even began thinking constructively about the companion volume Bissoon returned with bad news. He gave it with respect and sympathy. He took off his hat when he came into the house, didn’t fling his feet over the arm of the chair, and when he wanted water he said, ‘ Tonnerre! But it hot today. You think you could give me just a little sip of water?’

‘I is not like some people who does go round boasting that they right,’ he said, after he had drunk. ‘Nah, I is not that sort of man. I know I did tell you, but I not going to even talk about it now. Wasn’t your fault that you didn’t know. You ain’t have my experience in the business, that is all.’

‘You ain’t sell none at all?’

‘Sell ten, and all the people I sell it to going to behave like your wife father when they get to find out. Had to sell it to them as sort of charm. Pappa, that cost me a lot of work.’

‘Ninety cent commission you have to get, then.’

‘Don’t bother. You keep that for the next one you write. Anything in the way of printed matter, if it can sell, Bissoon is the man to sell it.’

‘Can’t understand it, Bissoon.’

‘Is easy. You a little too early. You see, is the sort of book you go have hell even giving away because people go think you want to work some sign of magic on them. Still, you mustn’t give up.’

‘Damn funny sort of sign!’

Bissoon looked up bewildered.

In spite of everything Ganesh still felt that something might be made of the book. He sent signed copies to the heads of all the Governments he could think of, and when Beharry found that Ganesh was sending them free, he was annoyed.

‘I is a independent man,’ he said. ‘And I don’t hold with that sort of curry-favouring. If the King want to read the book, he got to pay for it.’

This didn’t stop Ganesh sending a copy to Mahatma Gandhi, and doubtless it was only the outbreak of the war that prevented an acknowledgement.

MANY YEARS AFTER the event, Ganesh wrote in The Years of Guilt: ‘Everything happens for the best. If, for instance, my first volume had been a success, it is likely that I would have become a mere theologian, writing endless glosses on the Hindu scriptures. As it was, I found my true path.’

In fact, when the war began, his path was none too clear.

‘Is a hell of a thing,’ he told Beharry. ‘I feel I make for something big, yet I can’t see what it is.’

‘Is just why you going to do something big. I still believe in you, and Suruj Mooma still believes in you.’

They followed the war news with interest and discussed it every Sunday. Beharry got hold of a war map of Europe and stuck red pins on it. He talked a lot about strategy and ta’tics, and this gave Ganesh the idea of publishing monthly surveys of the progress of the war, ‘as a sort of history book for later on’. The idea excited him for a little, then lingered and died at the back of his mind.

‘I wish Hitler would come over and start bombing up Trinidad,’ he exclaimed one Sunday.

Beharry nibbled, eager for argument. ‘Why, man?’

‘Bomb everything to hell. Then it going to have no more worries about massaging people and writing books and all that sort of nonsense.’

‘But you forgetting that we is just a tiny little dot on some maps. If you ask me, I think Hitler ain’t even know it have a place called Trinidad and that it have people like you and me and Suruj Mooma living on it.’

‘Nah,’ Ganesh insisted. ‘It have oil here and the Germans thirsty for oil. If you don’t look out, Hitler come here first.’

‘Don’t let Suruj Mooma hear you. She cousin join the Volunteers. The dentist follow I did tell you about. Dentistry stop paying, so he join up. He tell Suruj Mooma is a nice, easy work.’

‘Suruj Mooma cousin have a eye for that sort of thing.’

‘But what if the Germans land here tomorrow?’

‘The only thing I sure about is that Suruj Mooma cousin go start breaking all sort of world record for running.’

‘No, man. If the Germans come, what we going to use for money? What about my shop? And the court-house? Is things like that does worry me.’

So, discussing the implications of the war, they began to discuss war in general. Beharry was full of quotations from the Gita , and Ganesh read again, with fuller appreciation, the dialogue between Arjuna and Krishna on the field of battle.

It gave a new direction to his reading. Forgetting the war, he became a great Indologist and bought all the books on Hindu philosophy he could get in San Fernando. He read them, marked them, and on Sunday afternoons made notes. At the same time he developed a taste for practical psychology and read many books on The Art of Getting On. But India was his great love. It became his habit, on examining a new book, to look first at the index to see whether there were any references to India or Hinduism. If the references were complimentary he bought the book. Soon he owned a curious selection.

‘Is a lot of book you getting, you know, Ganesh,’ Beharry said.

‘I was thinking. Suppose you didn’t know about me and you was just driving through Fuente Grove in your Lincoln Zephyr. You think you would guess that my house just full up with a hundred and one sort of book?’

‘Wouldn’t guess,’ said Beharry.