The Calcutta Chromosome: Amitav Ghosh
Calcutta Chromosome is a fiction novel written by the much-acclaimed Indian author, Amitav Ghosh in 1995. The book was first published by “Ravi Dayal Publisher 1996” and after it caught the eyes of many publishers. The book won the Arthur C. Clarke award for the year 1996. This award is given for best fiction novel published in the United Kingdom in the prior calendar year.
Amitav Ghosh was born in Calcutta, India in the year 1956. He grew up in many different places India, Bangladesh & Sri Lanka. Much of his work is well known for fiction. He read from the University of Delhi for his Bachelors & Masters, went to Oxford for his Ph.D.
The book is about chasing the unknown and an unprovable trace of medical technology hiding behind the curtains of another medical breakthrough of malaria research.
Different timelines are intermixed, which is one of the reasons why there is an eagerness to find out what might have happened to the characters. It starts out in a future date where Antar (an employee of LifeWatch) is keen on uncovering the details of a lost employee by the name Murugan using his data processing machine called Ava. And the story switches quickly to a different past of Murugan and Antar working together for the same company. Where a mix of Murugan’s own future is played out during his own pursuit at Calcutta with the two journalists by the name Sonali Das and Urmila.
Sir Ronald Ross’s discovery did not come by his conventional acts of research alone according to this story. There is a larger multidimensional body of resources at play which appeared in the form of a man known by many names Lutchman, Lakhhan, etc., which interfered with Ross’s life without his awareness.
A character by the name, Murugan or Morgan, as he would like to be called by his landlady, claims to be an expert on Ross’s life.
“ ‘Ronald Ross,’ said Murugan. ‘Nobel-winning bacteriologist. Take it from me, as far as the subject of Ronnie Ross goes, I’m the only show in town.’ ”
There is a sense of aloneness in the stories of the different characters. Their own sense of struggle and hunger to realize the truth.
After all, this medical thriller sets its tone under the looming lights of the cityscapes of Calcutta. And the chase for immortality through chromosomal transfer from body to body makes it apt for the title to be called Calcutta Chromosome.
