A TURQUOISE NOISE

Untitled Part 5

THE RISE OF 

RAJAH SADHARANA DHARMA

The young Swede had unwittingly signed up with a ship's captain of evil reputation. He had never hired on in exchange for passage on a cargo freighter before and as luck would have it, he had landed aboard the worst of them.

His father was a fisherman as was his father before him. His Grandfather had migrated to the Northwest Territory decades before the turn of the century to a beautiful little cove called Gig Harbor, where from out of, Otis and his family and neighbors had fished the northwest coast, even to the icy glaciers.

Fishermen were of a different lot than Merchant Marines but Otis did his best to learn and adjust. Being green he was subjected to all sorts of ridicule, pranks and even physical violence. He had taken more than his fair share of abuse. The captain had callously turned his head to gross misconduct on critical occasions, allowing bullies to oversee the ship's crew. The Swede, bitter over his brutal treatment, dreamed of revenge. But the seasoned seamen were strong and weathered. Otis was not yet a match for the likes of those he held most against. Although almost twenty seven, one would say he was no longer completely wet behind the ears. Nevertheless, like most young men he felt that violent retribution was most appropriate and he vowed that he would have his.

It wasn't a day too soon for the anxious young man when the ship pulled into harbor in the Bay of Bengal, India. It was hot and muggy. A stench the likes of nothing he had ever experienced extended from the most crowded city one could imagine. Yet he was eager to be off that retched freighter. He had traveled by train all the way across the United States. Then it had taken him three and a half long months out of New York, with port calls along the Spanish and African coasts, all the way to Cape Town around the Cape of Good Hope, then across the wide expanse of the mysterious Indian Ocean to Calcutta, a bustling merchant port. Young Otis Sandstrom had traveled on his own halfway around the world and was still optimistic in his quest even though he felt insignificant as now merely one in a large colony of busy ants.

Otis wandered the crowded streets soaking in all of the architecture and colors and styles of the brightly dressed people. The women wore a length of material wrapped around their bodies forming a long skirt. The loose ends of which were thrown over their heads. He found most of the females exotically attractive. Many of them were dripping with gold jewelry. Otis wondered how so much wealth came out of so much squalor. The men wore various assortments of headdress. Some sported turbans, others a fez or a flat cap. Most of the males wore a length of simple white material which hung around the body and legs to create a sort of baggy trouser.

The designs of buildings came in all assortments. There were plenty of common mud and brick dwellings yet many temples and other structures stood so intricately ornate that Otis was tempted to study the deities and demons carved into them for hours. Many domed structures arose in splendor, adorned in finely designed and brightly colored ceramics.

The young man had seen pictures and read many tales of the East in wonder yet there was no explanation of the way he felt now. He was so filled with mixed emotions over the hopeless state of the destitute verses the wealth and beauty of the land.

Otis puked when he saw a dead baby floating in the Ganges River. Before he had turned his eyes away from the disturbing scene a large turtle snatched the tiny corpse in its beak and pulled it under. The stranger would soon learn that this spectacle would seem insignificant in the scope of things to come. As he made his way through the crowds along the river he spotted more floating body parts among drifting debris, sewage and rubbish.

The year was 1905. The British government had years before seized control of most of India. The French still had possession of some small strips of western coastline and there would always be unrest among the many Kingships of the North. The British and French had of course come to exploit the plentiful natural resources: rich tobacco, spices, gold, diamonds, fine silks and rugs, coal, many untapped minerals and high grade virgin lumber. The modern cities of the world were filling zoos with captured India wild life, lions and tigers, zebras, rhinoceros, elephants and monkeys.