River of Smoke - Amitav Ghosh

                 

Author: Amitav Ghosh

Best sellers: The Hungry Tide, Sea of Poppies,  Calcutta Chromosome.

Synopsis: 
Since the book cover didn't give any, I resorted to wikipedia for the synopsis.

In the year 1838, Three ships are caught in a raging storm off the coast of Canton. The Anahita, owned by Bahram Modi,  Parsi opium trader from Bombay, The Redruth, Owned by Fitcher Penrose, on an expedition to collect rare species of plants from China and Ibis (from the sea of poppies) carrying convicts and indentured labourers. The convicts Neel Rattan, a Bengali Zamindar and Ah Fatt a criminal from Canton, escape from the ship along with a couple of lascars.

The story traces the lives of these principal characters in Canton.Bahram Modi a lowly son-in-law of a rich Parsi Ship builder Rustamjee Mistrie,convinces his father in law to provide him seed capital to enter in to opium trade and carries out multiple sucessful expeditions to China and creates considerable wealth in the process for his in laws. However, on the sudden demise of his father in law, he is forced by his brothers in law to retire from the Export division. Bahram decides to ship a large consignemnt of opium to China, as he is confident that he would be able to earn a sizeable profit to buyout the Export division, in spite of a ban on trading of Opium issued by the Chinese officials. Bahram also has a son(Ah Fat) through a Chinese boat woman, Chi Mei, unknown to his family back in Bombay.

Fitcher Penrose, a botanist,is on an expedition to China to collect rare plants. He is joined by Paulette Lambert aka Puggly, daughter of a French botanist, in his search for the rare Golden camellias. They are helped by Robert Chinnery,a fictional illiegitimate son of the English painter George Chinnery

Neel and Ah Fat have escaped from Ibis and they meet Bahram Modi, Ah Fat's father. Neel joins Bahram's as his Munshi.

Does Mr.Modi manage to sell his opium and redeem himself inspte of the Chinese government's crackdown, does Mr.Fitcher find the rare plant he is looking for? Does Neel manage to evade the long arm of the law?

Excerpt:

"That is just it," said Bahram. "How long will we have to wait?"

     Captain Elliott scratched his chin. "Perhaps two years. Maybe three."

     "Two or three years!"

 Bahram remembered the angry letters that had been accumulating in his office; he tried to think of how he would explain the circumstances to his investors; he thought of the reactions of his brothers-in-law when the news reached them; he could almost hear them exulting, in their discreet way; he could imagine what they would say to Shireenbai: We warned you; he's a speculator, you shouldn't have let him squander your inheritance...

      "Surely your investors would wait, Mr Moddie, would they not?" Burnham insisted. "It is just a question of a little time afterall."

       Time!

       Every man in the room was looking in Bahram's direction now. He was too proud to tell him that time was the one thing he did not have; that a delay of two years would mean certain default; that for him the results of Captain Elliott's betraal would be ruin, bankruptcy and debtor's prison.

        None of this could be said, not here, not now. Somehow Bahram managed to summon a smile. "Yes," he said. "Ofcourse my investors will wait." 

Maithili Speak:

To start with I didn't know this was part of Ibis triology (because the book had no synopsis on cover) and was second to Sea of Poppies. 

The starting was a bit confusing with lot of native language used( which the author takes no pain to translate!) and little history of the characters of the first book.

Now for those of you who are not too good with history and do not remember crap about the opium war on China here is the gist:

Foreign countries exported opium in exchange for tea and silk to china. Opium was mostly exported by East India Company which had forced its colonial countries, including India, to take up large scale production of opium. England itself put strict restriction on Opium in its own country. 

China had, for centuries, restricted foreign movements in their country. Chinese government had ensured that all trade with foreigners was conducted strictly with the merchant guild of China and outside the walled city. No local citizen was to be involved in trade with foreigners. The merchant guild was responsible for the foreigners' conduct and trade. 

The opium addiction had reached to such heights in China that the Emperor had to step in to curb it. The government officials, seeing the wealth that smuggling opium brought, had been too lenient with foreigners while the merchant guild was friends with the foreigners.

Opium was smuggled in large quantities across the islands and river. The Canton city was the floating city where all trade happened. The emperor appointed a commissioner who was incorruptible and which led to complete stopping of trade through Canton.

The goods were burnt and foreigners took this as a opportunity to war with China and the rest as called in history is the after effect of "opium war".

The book leaves no character without proper history and background. The description of China is interesting and so is the trade of those times. 

Bahram is the Parsi merchant who succeeds in making his place in this close knit Committee although his story is that of what an independent merchant would face competing with foreigners. He lives a very different life in Canton and for his very reason it is very important to him that the trade be never stopped. He discovered what love was with Chi-mei , a boat woman who bore him his only son. He has loyal friends and is known as respectable there. 

There's also this character called Robin Chinnery who is sent to find about a botanical species called "golden cameilla" but is busy with artists and writing longgggggggggggggg letters to his friend Paulette who he called Puggly. 

Its is an exhausting book , but if you the one who loves historical set ups, long descriptions and an impeccable vocabulary this book is for you.

Rating: 3 on 5 because the author assumes that you know the language of the boat people and does not bother translating in some places!

Price: Rs 699/-

You can read it online HERE. However I wouldn't prefer to read such a long book online..