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The Calcutta Chromosome
From Victorian lndia to near-future New York, The Calcutta Chromosome takes readers on a wondrous journey through time as a computer programmer trapped in a mind-numbing job hits upon a curious item that will forever change his life. When Antar discovers the battered ID card of a long-lost acquaintance, he is suddenly drawn into a spellbinding adventure across centuries and around the globe, into the strange life of L. Murugan, a man obsessed with the medical history of malaria, and into a magnificently complex world where conspiracy hangs in the air like mosquitoes on a summer night.
320 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1996
315 people are currently reading
5869 people want to read
About the author
Amitav Ghosh
55 books4,153 followersAmitav Ghosh is an Indian writer. He won the 54th Jnanpith award in 2018, India's highest literary honour. Ghosh's ambitious novels use complex narrative strategies to probe the nature of national and personal identity, particularly of the people of India and South Asia. He has written historical fiction and non-fiction works discussing topics such as colonialism and climate change.
Ghosh studied at The Doon School, Dehradun, and earned a doctorate in social anthropology at the University of Oxford. He worked at the Indian Express newspaper in New Delhi and several academic institutions. His first novel, The Circle of Reason, was published in 1986, which he followed with later fictional works, including The Shadow Lines and The Glass Palace. Between 2004 and 2015, he worked on the Ibis trilogy, which revolves around the build-up and implications of the First Opium War. His non-fiction work includes In an Antique Land (1992) and The Great Derangement: Climate Change and the Unthinkable (2016).
Ghosh holds two Lifetime Achievement awards and four honorary doctorates. In 2007, he was awarded the Padma Shri, one of India's highest honours, by the President of India. In 2010, he was a joint winner, along with Margaret Atwood, of a Dan David prize, and in 2011, he was awarded the Grand Prix of the Blue Metropolis festival in Montreal. He was the first English-language writer to receive the award. In 2019, Foreign Policy magazine named him one of the most important global thinkers of the preceding decade.
Ghosh studied at The Doon School, Dehradun, and earned a doctorate in social anthropology at the University of Oxford. He worked at the Indian Express newspaper in New Delhi and several academic institutions. His first novel, The Circle of Reason, was published in 1986, which he followed with later fictional works, including The Shadow Lines and The Glass Palace. Between 2004 and 2015, he worked on the Ibis trilogy, which revolves around the build-up and implications of the First Opium War. His non-fiction work includes In an Antique Land (1992) and The Great Derangement: Climate Change and the Unthinkable (2016).
Ghosh holds two Lifetime Achievement awards and four honorary doctorates. In 2007, he was awarded the Padma Shri, one of India's highest honours, by the President of India. In 2010, he was a joint winner, along with Margaret Atwood, of a Dan David prize, and in 2011, he was awarded the Grand Prix of the Blue Metropolis festival in Montreal. He was the first English-language writer to receive the award. In 2019, Foreign Policy magazine named him one of the most important global thinkers of the preceding decade.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 755 reviews
April 8, 2018
The Calcutta Chromosome is a novel that breaks boundaries between what is real and what is not real.
April 16, 2013
What was that Mr. Ghosh? An attempt at a new genre? A bold stroke at creating a uniquely Indian view on science and how it would have been if science research was driven by mystics and cults? A spi-sci-fi book?
It is a pity that all the science falls flat the moment it wanders beyond the known and the proven. It could have been so much better. However, because Ghosh keeps all the science strictly to the unreliable Murugan, it seems acceptable or at least pardonable - even when it is utter nonsense, we can take it as a man's eccentricities and carry on in the ride he has created for himself.
If the narrator had not climbed aboard the same train for the ride, not to mention adding the unnecessary ghost train (or did I miss its significance all together?) and the comic book ending, I would have given the book an additional star to complete a fiver - it entertained me that much, and when unexpected entertainment finds you, it is exhilarating. The book under-delivered on literary merit but over-delivered on pure fun and that works, sometimes.
I fully expect it to be the worst of Ghosh’s works but I also know that I will not approach anything by him with the faint dread-steeped respect with which we approach most modern literary giants for the first time.
It is a pity that all the science falls flat the moment it wanders beyond the known and the proven. It could have been so much better. However, because Ghosh keeps all the science strictly to the unreliable Murugan, it seems acceptable or at least pardonable - even when it is utter nonsense, we can take it as a man's eccentricities and carry on in the ride he has created for himself.
If the narrator had not climbed aboard the same train for the ride, not to mention adding the unnecessary ghost train (or did I miss its significance all together?) and the comic book ending, I would have given the book an additional star to complete a fiver - it entertained me that much, and when unexpected entertainment finds you, it is exhilarating. The book under-delivered on literary merit but over-delivered on pure fun and that works, sometimes.
I fully expect it to be the worst of Ghosh’s works but I also know that I will not approach anything by him with the faint dread-steeped respect with which we approach most modern literary giants for the first time.
August 14, 2011
The one good thing that's come out of my having sat through this is, I now know a thing or two about mosquitoes, parasites and Ronald Ross. That's a point in favour of Mr.Ghosh. The man is clearly a human encyclopaedia. Everything I've read of his, which admittedly isn't a great deal, has been packed with technical detail about whatever subject it is that he's taken upon himself to write about.
In The Sea of Poppies, he manages to build a powerful, thrusting narrative on the foundations of his trademarked academic rigour, making it, in the process, the towering achievement it is; in The Hungry Tide, on the other hand, there's a sense of the facts dominating the somewhat rickety plot, but the book works nevertheless, because the facts themselves command interest.
The Calcutta Chromosome is, of all things, an attempt at science fiction, which falls flat because there's almost nothing to chew on except the occasional monologue about the history and science of early tropical medicine. Fascinating as the subject is, it isn't substantial enough to hold an entire novel up on its own merits, and the lesson in all of this is, books mustn't be written for reasons of vanity alone; there's a point to stories that hold one's attention and tie up in the end.
Quite apart from that, and this comes as a surprise, the book is poorly written. The dialogue is weak - in what seems like an attempt to give the story's Mr.Murugan a little character, Ghosh saddles the poor man with cod-American speech, a move which has the opposite effect, and instantly cuts the poor man down to a caricature. What makes me even more uneasy are the translations of Bengali figures of speech, done tactlessly and literally - this bothers me a little in The Hungry Tide, and it bothers me a lot more with this book, appearing as it does amidst already leaden prose - chatar matha may fit seamlessly into Bengali; "umbrella head" sounds horrible and meaningless in English, and you'd think any author with an ear for dialogue would notice.
But the real crime is the plot. The entire story reads like something Ghosh made up as he went along - carroming wildly from era to era and sub-plot to sub-plot, all in aid of the thoroughly flimsy premise which has practically the entire city of Calcutta in on a senseless, unprofitable, untenable conspiracy, one which is neither interesting nor scary, merely... odd, lacking a point.
On top of this, each time the narrative paints itself into a corner, along comes a bizarre and unworldly coincidence or digression which sorts it all out. Now, I'm as willing to suspend my disbelief as the next man, but there's a limit, and this "Lutchman was actually Laakhan!!" and "Tara was really Urmila!" and "Mrs.Ana-whatever-it-was was actually the goddess of mosquitoes!" stuff is a cop-out which has very nearly succeeded in convincing me that when Amitav Ghosh started writing this novel, he had no idea where he wanted it to end.
In the meanwhile, the devices used to build up tension - the ghost train, the ritual that one of the women stumbles upon in the abandoned house - are arbitrary and simplistic; they come across as sort of thing one may try to scare kids with, but won't wash when you've paid money to read an award-winning novelist.
It's hard to think of the book as anything more than an academic's conceit, a little fantasy too obscure to engage the lay reader. The Calcutta Chromosomoe finds Amitav Ghosh floundering out of his depth, plays to almost none of his strengths, revealing instead all his shortcomings as a writer.
It's not worth the time one spends on it.
In The Sea of Poppies, he manages to build a powerful, thrusting narrative on the foundations of his trademarked academic rigour, making it, in the process, the towering achievement it is; in The Hungry Tide, on the other hand, there's a sense of the facts dominating the somewhat rickety plot, but the book works nevertheless, because the facts themselves command interest.
The Calcutta Chromosome is, of all things, an attempt at science fiction, which falls flat because there's almost nothing to chew on except the occasional monologue about the history and science of early tropical medicine. Fascinating as the subject is, it isn't substantial enough to hold an entire novel up on its own merits, and the lesson in all of this is, books mustn't be written for reasons of vanity alone; there's a point to stories that hold one's attention and tie up in the end.
Quite apart from that, and this comes as a surprise, the book is poorly written. The dialogue is weak - in what seems like an attempt to give the story's Mr.Murugan a little character, Ghosh saddles the poor man with cod-American speech, a move which has the opposite effect, and instantly cuts the poor man down to a caricature. What makes me even more uneasy are the translations of Bengali figures of speech, done tactlessly and literally - this bothers me a little in The Hungry Tide, and it bothers me a lot more with this book, appearing as it does amidst already leaden prose - chatar matha may fit seamlessly into Bengali; "umbrella head" sounds horrible and meaningless in English, and you'd think any author with an ear for dialogue would notice.
But the real crime is the plot. The entire story reads like something Ghosh made up as he went along - carroming wildly from era to era and sub-plot to sub-plot, all in aid of the thoroughly flimsy premise which has practically the entire city of Calcutta in on a senseless, unprofitable, untenable conspiracy, one which is neither interesting nor scary, merely... odd, lacking a point.
On top of this, each time the narrative paints itself into a corner, along comes a bizarre and unworldly coincidence or digression which sorts it all out. Now, I'm as willing to suspend my disbelief as the next man, but there's a limit, and this "Lutchman was actually Laakhan!!" and "Tara was really Urmila!" and "Mrs.Ana-whatever-it-was was actually the goddess of mosquitoes!" stuff is a cop-out which has very nearly succeeded in convincing me that when Amitav Ghosh started writing this novel, he had no idea where he wanted it to end.
In the meanwhile, the devices used to build up tension - the ghost train, the ritual that one of the women stumbles upon in the abandoned house - are arbitrary and simplistic; they come across as sort of thing one may try to scare kids with, but won't wash when you've paid money to read an award-winning novelist.
It's hard to think of the book as anything more than an academic's conceit, a little fantasy too obscure to engage the lay reader. The Calcutta Chromosomoe finds Amitav Ghosh floundering out of his depth, plays to almost none of his strengths, revealing instead all his shortcomings as a writer.
It's not worth the time one spends on it.
December 8, 2014
I kept on making out some sense of the book until I was hugely put off by the ghost train.
At the end, I really wanted to bang my head against the book.
At the end, I really wanted to bang my head against the book.
February 5, 2008
Just completing the book, my mind is left swirling with unanswered questions but an implicit sense of understanding that there is something beneath this story about malaria and the scientist Ross across the past, present, and future. Strikingly, the known facts about Ross are presented in a new light - making it a mystery about his discovery - it made me think how all flashes of brilliance are mysterious, like how Archimedes said "eureka!" when he stepped into a bath and noticed the water level rise -- he suddenly understood that the volume of water displaced must be equal to the volume of the part of his body he had submerged.
But then, I realized that Ghosh must be alluding to the fact that what seems like a conspiracy is really fate bearing down on us - the Gods have their own designs. We just follow the light or choose not to and end up still "following" the (metaphorical) light, inadvertantly. Goddess Mangaladevi (Mrs. A, Urmila, Tara) sems to be the representation of Ma Durga who is a very important representation of the Mother Goddess in Calcutta. Lutchman, Laakan, Lucky seems to be the god Lakshmana, the younger brother of Ram - who follows by Ram's side as a constant companian for fourteen years on his journey in exile. This could mean that the three men - Ronald, Morgan and Antar - then unwittingly playing the role of Ram.
However, understanding this book is like the "Calcutta Chromosome" itself - knowing it means changing it or mutating it. I think I will have to muse a bit more about the significance of Antar as the only boy who escaped the rare outbreak of malaria in Egypt who is the "one" they seek as their perfect discoverer for perfect discovery.
But then, I realized that Ghosh must be alluding to the fact that what seems like a conspiracy is really fate bearing down on us - the Gods have their own designs. We just follow the light or choose not to and end up still "following" the (metaphorical) light, inadvertantly. Goddess Mangaladevi (Mrs. A, Urmila, Tara) sems to be the representation of Ma Durga who is a very important representation of the Mother Goddess in Calcutta. Lutchman, Laakan, Lucky seems to be the god Lakshmana, the younger brother of Ram - who follows by Ram's side as a constant companian for fourteen years on his journey in exile. This could mean that the three men - Ronald, Morgan and Antar - then unwittingly playing the role of Ram.
However, understanding this book is like the "Calcutta Chromosome" itself - knowing it means changing it or mutating it. I think I will have to muse a bit more about the significance of Antar as the only boy who escaped the rare outbreak of malaria in Egypt who is the "one" they seek as their perfect discoverer for perfect discovery.
September 10, 2011
I am at a loss trying to write down what exactly I felt after reading this book. Was it the fact that none of the mysteries got resolved after the last page ? Was it the fact that contrary to my usual style of writing reviews I took a lot at other reviewers and find them creating interpretations for the web spun for this tale ? Such questions abound. I have no answer but a feeling (superficial though ) of being led down a long winding corridor and finally coming face on with a wall.
The premise is very alluring : the history of malarial research, ancient cults, a story line that weaves in and out of multiple time lines and a thick pall of atmospheric chills. It is part sci-fi, part detective fiction with a thin layer of horror smeared on. On a personal note, I like the parts where the writer's imagination takes leaps and bounds and comes up with fantastic outcomes. This is accomplished partly by the historic parts in the novel with the mystical components of eastern India being utilized. The subtle usage of the secret societies of India that would later become a rage thanks to a specific Mr.Brown is hard to miss too.
Where it all felt as a let down is when the story nears its end. The ending was not convincing enough for me. And it did not feel too much justified to all the journeys I undertook with the characters.It's like you visit a new place and ask the natives for a wonderful sight to see. They ask you to walk a little further for a glorious lake. You walk and walk and see no sign of it. Every other villager you meet tells you its just around the corner & finally you reach the place to see a pond with buffaloes wading in them & water lilies bobbing ! You wonder if you were hoodwinked & maybe if you strain your ears you might catch a sliver of laughter in the wind.
The premise is very alluring : the history of malarial research, ancient cults, a story line that weaves in and out of multiple time lines and a thick pall of atmospheric chills. It is part sci-fi, part detective fiction with a thin layer of horror smeared on. On a personal note, I like the parts where the writer's imagination takes leaps and bounds and comes up with fantastic outcomes. This is accomplished partly by the historic parts in the novel with the mystical components of eastern India being utilized. The subtle usage of the secret societies of India that would later become a rage thanks to a specific Mr.Brown is hard to miss too.
Where it all felt as a let down is when the story nears its end. The ending was not convincing enough for me. And it did not feel too much justified to all the journeys I undertook with the characters.It's like you visit a new place and ask the natives for a wonderful sight to see. They ask you to walk a little further for a glorious lake. You walk and walk and see no sign of it. Every other villager you meet tells you its just around the corner & finally you reach the place to see a pond with buffaloes wading in them & water lilies bobbing ! You wonder if you were hoodwinked & maybe if you strain your ears you might catch a sliver of laughter in the wind.
August 8, 2016
I think this is a book which has an excellent plot and the mystery is truly gripping. I particularly enjoyed the section where author Phulboni experiences the apparition of Lakhan and the station master at the ghost rail station of Renupur. The narrative was so realistic and rich that I almost found myself in the shoes of Phulboni. I think the computer tricks and overstated computing technology that is featured in this novel makes it slightly less credible, especially today when network computing and data transfer has become very advanced and an everyday regular affair. I think the character Antar could have been made more interesting and perhaps more active. The drama and adventure that unfolds in Calcutta is quite gripping; in fact it is gripping to the point of making the reader imagine Calcutta to be a place that hides esoteric secrets and legacies. And these are secrets that have origin in the city's colonial past, its colonial architecture, its literature, intelligentsia and so on. This novel falls short in the way it ends: abruptly and in a rather inconclusive manner. I have read novels that ended inconclusively but this one makes the reader confused and leaves him with the impression that this was an unfinished tale. I wonder if this has to do with Ghosh's experimental ways in writing fiction- a thing which Ghosh took risk with in his early novels.
January 2, 2025
Fevers, Delirium and Discovery…
1) Delirium:
--Having finally read an essay by Ghosh in the fabulous little collection Will the Flower Slip Through the Asphalt: Writers Respond to Capitalist Climate Change, I was eager to explore more. So why pick the worst-rated novel by Ghosh?
--Well, it seemed accessible (relatively short and the setting is modern). The main criticism I saw was it became difficult to track. Curiously, I was immune to this delirium in the sense that I’m always in a mild delirium when I read new fiction anyways. You see, my fiction-reading is stunted. With some 70 ongoing reads (mostly nonfiction tomes), I reserve 1 fiction for when my brain is at its most sluggish. So, I didn’t expect to track all the fictional intricacies anyways.
--I've since read the best of Ghosh:
-nonfiction: The Great Derangement: Climate Change and the Unthinkable and The Nutmeg's Curse: Parables for a Planet in Crisis
-fiction: Sea of Poppies trilogy
2) Fevers and Discovery:
--What I get out of fiction is space for my thoughts to wander, to rediscover memories and reimagine fragmented thought experiments.
--The theme of fevers brought me back to my courses in epidemiology (before COVID-19 popularized the profession), which:
i) Started with mainstream/reformist adventures like the 1994 The Coming Plague: Newly Emerging Diseases in a World Out of Balance…
ii) Evolved into the foundational, Goldacre’s I Think You'll Find It's a Bit More Complicated Than That…
ii) And finally synthesized with critical political economy in Dead Epidemiologists: On the Origins of COVID-19.
--Another critique I saw was on the implausibility of the science (esp. biology) in the plot. I did note Ghosh’s acknowledgements include “I am especially indebted to Alka Mansukhani of the Department of Microbiology, New York University Medical Center: her ideas and support were essential to the writing of this book.”. This seems to be the offending passage:
i) Medicine: miasma theory was finally replaced by germ theory of disease in the 1880s; the evidence-based paradigm was still challenging eminence-based medicine in the 1960s-80s (overview: Bad Science: Quacks, Hacks, and Big Pharma Flacks). Mental health is still a mess:
-See the articles "Heroin on Prescription", "Neuro-Realism", "The Least Surrogate Outcome", "The Stigma Gene", "Brain-Imaging Studies Report More Positive Findings Than Their Numbers Can Support. This Is Fishy" in the aforementioned collection I Think You'll Find It's a Bit More Complicated Than That.
-A bit-more-sensationalist intro: Lost Connections: Uncovering the Real Causes of Depression - and the Unexpected Solutions
-The Myth of Normal: Trauma, Illness, and Healing in a Toxic Culture
ii) The social influences/context of scientific theories: I’m particularly interested in dissecting let-the-poor-die social theorist Thomas Malthus’ influence on Charles Darwin, and the debates between evolutionary competition vs. cooperation (i.e. Russian anarchist Pyotr Kropotkin).
...I've since explored this in materialist anthropology:
-Hierarchy in the Forest: The Evolution of Egalitarian Behavior
-Mothers and Others: The Evolutionary Origins of Mutual Understanding
...We also see this in ecology, which is rediscovering paradigms long explored by indigenous knowledge:
-Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants
-Finding the Mother Tree: Discovering the Wisdom of the Forest
...For legacy of Malthus, see: Too Many People?: Population, Immigration, and the Environmental Crisis
...Related: debate on the scientist that is “objective” (How the World Really Works: A Scientist’s Guide to Our Past, Present and Future) vs. “activist” (The Dialectical Biologist).
--One last neat little setting that we can expand on is modern jobs and their abstraction (digitization, the FIRE industry i.e. Finance, Insurance, Real Estate). For an example of science lacking critical social science, see: How the World Really Works: A Scientist’s Guide to Our Past, Present and Future
1) Delirium:
--Having finally read an essay by Ghosh in the fabulous little collection Will the Flower Slip Through the Asphalt: Writers Respond to Capitalist Climate Change, I was eager to explore more. So why pick the worst-rated novel by Ghosh?
--Well, it seemed accessible (relatively short and the setting is modern). The main criticism I saw was it became difficult to track. Curiously, I was immune to this delirium in the sense that I’m always in a mild delirium when I read new fiction anyways. You see, my fiction-reading is stunted. With some 70 ongoing reads (mostly nonfiction tomes), I reserve 1 fiction for when my brain is at its most sluggish. So, I didn’t expect to track all the fictional intricacies anyways.
--I've since read the best of Ghosh:
-nonfiction: The Great Derangement: Climate Change and the Unthinkable and The Nutmeg's Curse: Parables for a Planet in Crisis
-fiction: Sea of Poppies trilogy
2) Fevers and Discovery:
--What I get out of fiction is space for my thoughts to wander, to rediscover memories and reimagine fragmented thought experiments.
--The theme of fevers brought me back to my courses in epidemiology (before COVID-19 popularized the profession), which:
i) Started with mainstream/reformist adventures like the 1994 The Coming Plague: Newly Emerging Diseases in a World Out of Balance…
ii) Evolved into the foundational, Goldacre’s I Think You'll Find It's a Bit More Complicated Than That…
ii) And finally synthesized with critical political economy in Dead Epidemiologists: On the Origins of COVID-19.
--Another critique I saw was on the implausibility of the science (esp. biology) in the plot. I did note Ghosh’s acknowledgements include “I am especially indebted to Alka Mansukhani of the Department of Microbiology, New York University Medical Center: her ideas and support were essential to the writing of this book.”. This seems to be the offending passage:
'[…] For what we have here is a biological expression of human traits that is neither inherited from the immediate gene pool nor transmitted into it. It's exactly the kind of entity that would be hardest for a conventional scientist to accept. Biologists are under so much pressure to bring their findings into line with politics: right-wing politicians sit on them to find genes for everything, from poverty to terrorism, so they'll have an alibi for castrating the poor or nuking the Middle East. The left goes ballistic if they say anything at all about the biological expression of human traits: it's all consciousness and soul at that end of the spectrum.…I roll my eyes back at those who roll their eyes at this passage on the grounds of "science". The history of science is stranger than science fiction (I always say this about nonfiction vs. fiction because we expect nonfiction to be somehow normal and predictable). I do not just mean the philosophy of science (Theory and Reality: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Science); philosophy is predictably weird. I mean the social history behind science, including:
'But if you think about it, it figures that certain kinds of traits would have a biological correlate. But who said they have to be determined by biology? Maybe it even works the other way around – that they leave their imprint on biology. Who knows? […]'
i) Medicine: miasma theory was finally replaced by germ theory of disease in the 1880s; the evidence-based paradigm was still challenging eminence-based medicine in the 1960s-80s (overview: Bad Science: Quacks, Hacks, and Big Pharma Flacks). Mental health is still a mess:
-See the articles "Heroin on Prescription", "Neuro-Realism", "The Least Surrogate Outcome", "The Stigma Gene", "Brain-Imaging Studies Report More Positive Findings Than Their Numbers Can Support. This Is Fishy" in the aforementioned collection I Think You'll Find It's a Bit More Complicated Than That.
-A bit-more-sensationalist intro: Lost Connections: Uncovering the Real Causes of Depression - and the Unexpected Solutions
-The Myth of Normal: Trauma, Illness, and Healing in a Toxic Culture
ii) The social influences/context of scientific theories: I’m particularly interested in dissecting let-the-poor-die social theorist Thomas Malthus’ influence on Charles Darwin, and the debates between evolutionary competition vs. cooperation (i.e. Russian anarchist Pyotr Kropotkin).
...I've since explored this in materialist anthropology:
-Hierarchy in the Forest: The Evolution of Egalitarian Behavior
-Mothers and Others: The Evolutionary Origins of Mutual Understanding
...We also see this in ecology, which is rediscovering paradigms long explored by indigenous knowledge:
-Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants
-Finding the Mother Tree: Discovering the Wisdom of the Forest
...For legacy of Malthus, see: Too Many People?: Population, Immigration, and the Environmental Crisis
...Related: debate on the scientist that is “objective” (How the World Really Works: A Scientist’s Guide to Our Past, Present and Future) vs. “activist” (The Dialectical Biologist).
--One last neat little setting that we can expand on is modern jobs and their abstraction (digitization, the FIRE industry i.e. Finance, Insurance, Real Estate). For an example of science lacking critical social science, see: How the World Really Works: A Scientist’s Guide to Our Past, Present and Future
August 20, 2007
A mystery/thriller/scifi/postcolonial novel? If I hadn’t read Ghosh before and felt so comfortably trusting with him I might have stopped reading this early on. But I really liked what (I think?) I got out of this book. I’m not actually sure what that was but I had bodily chills for about an hour after finishing it. The striking epistemological/ontological theme developed slowly but not even remotely in full (and that’s the brilliance) is this: a counter-science—‘starting with the idea that knowledge is self-contradictory; maybe they believed that to know something is to change it, therefore in knowing something, you’ve already changed what you think you know so you don’t really know it at all: you only know its history. Maybe they thought that knowledge couldn’t begin without acknowledging the impossibility of knowledge.’
December 28, 2013
The Calcutta Chromosome is the third novel by Indian author, Amitav Ghosh. Egyptian-born Antar, an employee of the International Water Council sits working from home in his New York flat, monitoring his computer’s processing of a mind-numbingly boring inventory, thinking about a walk to Penn Station and dinner later with his neighbour, Tara. Suddenly, his attention is drawn to a charred ID card with the LifeWatch logo, and he begins to remember an encounter with an eccentric colleague, a man obsessed with a certain malaria pioneer, and intent on going to Calcutta, one L. Murugan. So begins Ghosh’s tale of fevers, delirium and discovery, a tale that spans centuries and continents. The story careens back and forth between some unspecified future time in New York, 1995 in Calcutta, 1950 in Alexandria, 1933 in Renupur and the 1890s in Calcutta. The cast of characters includes an archivist, an Armenian nursery owner, an Indian movie star, a revered Indian writer, a journalist, a computer analyst, a Hungarian Countess, a property developer, a syphilitic lab assistant, a babysitter, an American missionary, a Finnish spiritualist and a British Surgeon-Colonel in the India Medical Service. Syphilis, malaria, mosquitos, pigeons and clay images all play a part. This novel has elements of mystery, sci-fi, thriller, history, fantasy and there’s even a little ghost story in there. And somehow it all connects up to result in a very different page-turner. Ghosh’s characters, especially Murugan, are engaging and readers will find themselves involved in his quest, eager to go along for the ride. Quite extraordinary.
September 23, 2016
Rarely do books on malaria and malicious mosquitoes keep you at the edge of your seat. Ghosh, with his mastery over complex narratives and an unyielding nationalistic fervor, achieves this in sublime fashion. There's a gradual dissection of the Western dominance at play here, and through the cat and mouse chase, riddled with transcendence, immortality, Indian superstitions and a disturbing view of science and knowledge, Ghosh finds comfort and removes misconceptions in the heart of Calcutta. But perhaps, despite all of it, it's too complex.
September 27, 2007
My first ever book by A. Ghosh and because of this I bought four of his later books over the years. None matched the suspense of the first one, which I read in the hot summer in a poorly air-conditioned Texas dorm room. I could almost feel the delirium myself.
March 13, 2015
"The Glass Palace" is one of my all time favourites, and I find it difficult to believe that it was written by the same author. That is by no means a takedown of this book, in fact it is to the author's credit that he manages to do such a fantastic job across genres!
I'm finding it very difficult to give a genre label to this work - fantasy, horror, thriller, medical mystery historical fiction - though sci-fi for some reason seems to be its accepted genre. The plot uses a whole lot of themes - science, mysticism, religion, mythology, counter-science, even nihilism to a certain extent. I can't be sure but I also wonder if the author was firing a tiny salvo at a Western attitude towards Indian scholars, and how history has been written to glorify its authors. (non-objective and not giving credit where due)
There is no single narrative point of view, it stretches across time and various parties even within the same time frame. The story begins in a very relatable scenario with Antar, whose smart computer discovers an ID card belonging to a person who went missing in 1995. At the time of his disappearance, Murugan, a self proclaimed Ronald Ross expert had been in Calcutta, trying to find the actual story of how Ross made the discovery of malaria's transmission. While that might sound like a medical mystery you wouldn't care about, the tale is far from it because what it leads to is the Calcutta Chromosome, a freak chromosome that is neither inherited from, or transmits to a gene pool! Extrapolated and controlled, this is immortality we are talking about.
The text is tight and keeps you glued. I found the 'Phulboni experience' a superb indication of the author's ability to scare. The pace is blistering and sometimes the narrative switches between Antar, Murugan and the different folks in the latter's storyline gets disorienting. There are connections everywhere and as a reader, there is no margin for flipping through without paying full attention. The author had me hooked and I was always wondering where this would lead to. Despite the X-Files meets Sherlock theme, he even manages to add a little humour to the proceedings. In essence, a truly intriguing and interesting read.
I'm finding it very difficult to give a genre label to this work - fantasy, horror, thriller, medical mystery historical fiction - though sci-fi for some reason seems to be its accepted genre. The plot uses a whole lot of themes - science, mysticism, religion, mythology, counter-science, even nihilism to a certain extent. I can't be sure but I also wonder if the author was firing a tiny salvo at a Western attitude towards Indian scholars, and how history has been written to glorify its authors. (non-objective and not giving credit where due)
There is no single narrative point of view, it stretches across time and various parties even within the same time frame. The story begins in a very relatable scenario with Antar, whose smart computer discovers an ID card belonging to a person who went missing in 1995. At the time of his disappearance, Murugan, a self proclaimed Ronald Ross expert had been in Calcutta, trying to find the actual story of how Ross made the discovery of malaria's transmission. While that might sound like a medical mystery you wouldn't care about, the tale is far from it because what it leads to is the Calcutta Chromosome, a freak chromosome that is neither inherited from, or transmits to a gene pool! Extrapolated and controlled, this is immortality we are talking about.
The text is tight and keeps you glued. I found the 'Phulboni experience' a superb indication of the author's ability to scare. The pace is blistering and sometimes the narrative switches between Antar, Murugan and the different folks in the latter's storyline gets disorienting. There are connections everywhere and as a reader, there is no margin for flipping through without paying full attention. The author had me hooked and I was always wondering where this would lead to. Despite the X-Files meets Sherlock theme, he even manages to add a little humour to the proceedings. In essence, a truly intriguing and interesting read.
March 1, 2015
The Calcutta Chromosome started well with successive occurrences, which kept me glued to the pages, and then the mishap happened! This was the second book by Amitav Ghosh that I took to read. The first one being ‘The Hungry Tide’ and surprisingly the plot of Calcutta Chromosome seemed to me more interesting with the details of how Ronald Ross and the likes worked towards deciphering the actual cause behind the spreading of the then dreaded disease ‘malaria’.
The setting of spiritual group, the ever changing identity of Lakhan aka Lutchman aka Lakshman and the lady Mangala aka Mrs. Aratounian and then Urmila was all exciting and thrilling. And by the time the last few pages of the book was left, frankly speaking I was bit confused and started wondering which was the mystery that Amitav was trying to solve here- The spiritual group’s identity and principle or the actual malaria related discovery! May be I had built up too much expectation at the beginning of the book but sadly even when the book was over I was thinking whether the last few pages were missing from the book because I couldn’t conclude anything!
The constructed pace and momentum of the book was really good but I guess the closing could have been more clear and better. Well, that’s my opinion! I am sure I will find friends who would disagree!
The setting of spiritual group, the ever changing identity of Lakhan aka Lutchman aka Lakshman and the lady Mangala aka Mrs. Aratounian and then Urmila was all exciting and thrilling. And by the time the last few pages of the book was left, frankly speaking I was bit confused and started wondering which was the mystery that Amitav was trying to solve here- The spiritual group’s identity and principle or the actual malaria related discovery! May be I had built up too much expectation at the beginning of the book but sadly even when the book was over I was thinking whether the last few pages were missing from the book because I couldn’t conclude anything!
The constructed pace and momentum of the book was really good but I guess the closing could have been more clear and better. Well, that’s my opinion! I am sure I will find friends who would disagree!
October 21, 2010
If Peter Weir's movie The Last Wave (aka Black Rain) were set in India and involved the study of malaria, and you threw in a little Stanislaw Lem, and you stuck it all into a set of Russian nesting dolls, you might end up with something like The Calcutta Chromosome.
The novel has multiple layers and each one is a different genre of story. The outer layer has science fiction trappings. The middle layers are mystery and historical fiction. The inner layers are ghost stories. But that makes it sound tidier than it is. There are passages between the layers and certain characters wander in and out. It's more like a cave with multiple caverns and passages than like an onion.
Ghosh writes beautifully and the settings really came alive for me. The mystery took a while to pull me in but became increasingly compelling.
This is probably a book that needs to be read more than once to be fully appreciated.
Don't read this book if you only like novels that wrap everything up in a neat package at the end.
The novel has multiple layers and each one is a different genre of story. The outer layer has science fiction trappings. The middle layers are mystery and historical fiction. The inner layers are ghost stories. But that makes it sound tidier than it is. There are passages between the layers and certain characters wander in and out. It's more like a cave with multiple caverns and passages than like an onion.
Ghosh writes beautifully and the settings really came alive for me. The mystery took a while to pull me in but became increasingly compelling.
This is probably a book that needs to be read more than once to be fully appreciated.
Don't read this book if you only like novels that wrap everything up in a neat package at the end.
March 12, 2022
this book is about imaginary stuff that can happen as process of the medical research for chronic diseases and certain concepts related to them.
i was not able to connect everything narrated
the ending was just a closure to the discussion the book is about
i was not able to connect everything narrated
the ending was just a closure to the discussion the book is about
March 13, 2012
Science fiction? Gothic novel? Supernatural thriller? Collection of ghost stories? Futuristic exploration of the meaning of life, death, destiny? Conspiracy theory? Research about Ronald Ross and his 'discovery'? A warm description of Calcutta and its citizens, and their lives? Abstract exposition of science and its relation with human conceptions regarding power & control? Read this book, and choose your label. I have chosen mine, but it would be unfair to bias you with that label, isn't it? Recommended.
August 11, 2025
2 stars
Some parts made sense.
Some parts were nonsense.
At the end I could not make head or tail of this story.
Very confusing and complicated.
Read at your own risk.
Happy Reading!!
Some parts made sense.
Some parts were nonsense.
At the end I could not make head or tail of this story.
Very confusing and complicated.
Read at your own risk.
Happy Reading!!
October 10, 2011
Finished the book, but am much confused regarding the story. The events were haphazard, not chronological. I was lost.
It was weird, but kept my interest piqued to the last page. I was hoping against hope to find answers to all those baffling questions and doubts in the last few pages. But I am more confused than ever.
1. What really happens? what is this non-transferable chromosome nonsense?
2. There are many facts about fever therapy in malaria and the effect of malaria on brain which are not taught to medical students. Is it just a figment of the author's imagination? To the best of my knowledge, cerebral malaria is there, but malaria doesnot cause prolonged or long lasting hallucination
3. fever therapy of syphilis by malaria is well-known and there is some scientific basis - but here it is discarded as nonsense?
4. Which century Antar lives in? I know Murugan, Urmila and the other older actor cum journalist lady incidents occur in 1995. Do they predate Antar by centuries or decades?
5. Antar is in the US, and what is this "Ava" for?
Is there any purpose to Antar's work?
6. Is this a scifi? If it is, 'scifi's are extremely weird.
I loved reading the book, but I may not re-read it again. I would recommend it only to hard core scifi and medical thriller buffs
I was taught about malaria in my premed and med, but not much in detail regarding the history of discovery of malaria.
It was weird, but kept my interest piqued to the last page. I was hoping against hope to find answers to all those baffling questions and doubts in the last few pages. But I am more confused than ever.
1. What really happens? what is this non-transferable chromosome nonsense?
2. There are many facts about fever therapy in malaria and the effect of malaria on brain which are not taught to medical students. Is it just a figment of the author's imagination? To the best of my knowledge, cerebral malaria is there, but malaria doesnot cause prolonged or long lasting hallucination
3. fever therapy of syphilis by malaria is well-known and there is some scientific basis - but here it is discarded as nonsense?
4. Which century Antar lives in? I know Murugan, Urmila and the other older actor cum journalist lady incidents occur in 1995. Do they predate Antar by centuries or decades?
5. Antar is in the US, and what is this "Ava" for?
Is there any purpose to Antar's work?
6. Is this a scifi? If it is, 'scifi's are extremely weird.
I loved reading the book, but I may not re-read it again. I would recommend it only to hard core scifi and medical thriller buffs
I was taught about malaria in my premed and med, but not much in detail regarding the history of discovery of malaria.
January 29, 2022
The Calcutta chromosome tells the story of Murugan who is obsessed with Ronald Ross and his discovery of the Malarial parasites' life cycle.
Amitav Ghosh offers a blend of science fiction, speculation, and the occult in this book.
Murugan who studied the history of Malarial research senses that something is strange about it and sets out to unravel the mystery.He calls it 'The Calcutta chromosome'.
His research is presented through a narrative which swings back and forth in time. The story is intriguing and the best thing about Ghosh's narrative is it's delightfully engaging despite the non-linearity.
But the narrative proceeds with a sense of vagueness attached to it. You feel something's amiss. Few things were over the top and go unexplained. Given the genre of the book, I don't know whether questioning them is right or not. Characters are limited(and purposeful in a way you won't predict) except for a pack of scientists of the victorian era. As for the vagueness, it never goes off even after you turn the final page of the book.
Despite the hiccups, this is certainly a commendable and welcome attempt by Amitav Ghosh.
4 Stars, It is.
Amitav Ghosh offers a blend of science fiction, speculation, and the occult in this book.
Murugan who studied the history of Malarial research senses that something is strange about it and sets out to unravel the mystery.He calls it 'The Calcutta chromosome'.
His research is presented through a narrative which swings back and forth in time. The story is intriguing and the best thing about Ghosh's narrative is it's delightfully engaging despite the non-linearity.
But the narrative proceeds with a sense of vagueness attached to it. You feel something's amiss. Few things were over the top and go unexplained. Given the genre of the book, I don't know whether questioning them is right or not. Characters are limited(and purposeful in a way you won't predict) except for a pack of scientists of the victorian era. As for the vagueness, it never goes off even after you turn the final page of the book.
Despite the hiccups, this is certainly a commendable and welcome attempt by Amitav Ghosh.
4 Stars, It is.
February 16, 2013
Excellent read. Amitav Ghosh's portrayl of Kolkata is very refreshing and probably lends a good perspective to the various communities which have made Kolkata its home during the colonial period.
The story in itself is very thrilling and mysterious and keeps one guessing till the end ( Unless you read the end first). It is a historical fiction but can be called a ghost story because of the cult which it describes. My take on this book is a four star. A good book to read to pass the time and know Kolkata
The story in itself is very thrilling and mysterious and keeps one guessing till the end ( Unless you read the end first). It is a historical fiction but can be called a ghost story because of the cult which it describes. My take on this book is a four star. A good book to read to pass the time and know Kolkata
April 10, 2017
I am confused about the ending, not sure what it was and that it's believable. This was quite a fascinating tale despite that.
February 25, 2025
Seriously, what did I just read - was it a sci-fi novel, a thriller, a historical fiction book? Was it about malaria research, science, cults or a dystopian future? What was real and what was not and who was who in this delerious narrative? And I cannot think of a better place to set it up then Kolkata, a place I felt exists on the verge of reality, on a completely alternative timeline then the world i know.
March 28, 2016
One of those books that raise the tempo of the story to a peak, makes you bite your nails in anticipation and then drops you off the cliff with a bummed out ending.
The timelines were mixed up, and the story ended so abruptly that it felt someone has just showed how silly you are. And the first thing after I finished it, I opened up book reviews for it, and it was the same story everywhere. So much so that I had to read available book summary articles to understand what the hell was going on actually.
Still I give credit for the way the story was built up. Just that the end was a sour patch.
The timelines were mixed up, and the story ended so abruptly that it felt someone has just showed how silly you are. And the first thing after I finished it, I opened up book reviews for it, and it was the same story everywhere. So much so that I had to read available book summary articles to understand what the hell was going on actually.
Still I give credit for the way the story was built up. Just that the end was a sour patch.
March 28, 2024
Plecand de la studiul malarie, Amitav construieste aceasta carte cu informatii stiintifice documentate, despre un dezastru ce se poate intampla in timpul cercetarilor.
Insa cumva pe mine a reusit sa ma ameteasca, amestecand elemente de Sf, misticism pana la horror (apare si un tren al fantomelor). Inceputul a sunat atat de promitator, incat pana la final m-am simtit dezamagita ca nu si-a pastrat linia pe care pornise.
Insa cumva pe mine a reusit sa ma ameteasca, amestecand elemente de Sf, misticism pana la horror (apare si un tren al fantomelor). Inceputul a sunat atat de promitator, incat pana la final m-am simtit dezamagita ca nu si-a pastrat linia pe care pornise.
October 7, 2009
Couldn't quite grasp the point of the book. Not only were there a multitude of characters seemingly irrelevant, the plot line was just incredibly weak. It was a chore trying to finish this book.
September 30, 2019
2/5stars
meh. read for my postcolonialism class in grad school
meh. read for my postcolonialism class in grad school
January 4, 2020
Weird but interesting.. An unusual theme- History of malaria . Hats off to the author for churning out such out of the path themes for a plot..
March 2, 2024
It’s tempting to feel like I learned something about the history of malaria from this book but that is certainly not the case. I did however learn what it would feel like to play a game of historical telephone with a group of conspiracy theorists.
100% sure this book would benefit from a reread; equally sure that reading it again would fry my brain beyond recognition
100% sure this book would benefit from a reread; equally sure that reading it again would fry my brain beyond recognition
March 9, 2016
Romanul apare ca o lucrare puternic influentata de medicina prin subiectul tratat, evolutia cunostintelor de tratare a malariei de-a lungul timpului, primul mare teoretician al ideilor despre aceste metode find Sir Ronald Ross. Malaria, in caz ca nu stiati este una dintre cele mai raspindite boli cu milioane de oameni morti la activ, in special in zonele sarace din Asia, America si Africa, boala ce se transmite prin intepatura tantarului anofel.
Daca punctul de pornire are radacini puternic ancorate in realitate, continuarea este o adevarata opera de fictiune structurata sub forma de cadre, ce sunt prezentate succesiv, intr-o alternare continua, actiunea mutandu-se in timp inainte si inapoi.
Elementele de sci-fi sunt prezente minimal, remarcandu-se un supercalculator ce poate prelucra in detaliu orice informatie necesara omului, accentul fiind pus pe o asa zisa ipotetica conspiratie ce sta in spatele descoperirilor legate de malarie. Inlantuirea evenimentelor si secretivitatea excesiva ce invaluie actiunea impreuna cu modul in care interactioneaza personjele m-au facut sa ma simt intr-un Cod al lui da Vinci, insa dintr-o cu totul alta perspectiva.
Avem in fata o lectura usoara, destul de antrenanta, ce m-a surprins prin multitudinea informatiilor istorice dar si stiintifice vehiculate, cu o inlantuire cursiva a actiunii si personaje cu lipici la cititor.
Raman cu regretul ca nu am putut prinde cu adevarat partea finala. Am avut o imagine formata in urma modului in care s-au derulat evenimentele si directia in care a mers actiunea in ultimele pagini, autorul intervenind si complicand, de neinteles, cu un cadru final, intregul peisaj. Chiar sunt curios daca sunt si alte opinii.
In categoria nemultumiri si carcoteli, ar intra si constatarea ca Sir Ronald Ross, din ce am gasit pe internet aici si aici a luat premiul Nobel in 1902 si nu 1906, cum apare la inceputul cartii sub o poezie, poate gresesc, insa datele sunt evidente. Nu imi plac traducatorii ce folosesc unitatile de masura mila si picioare (mile, feet, eng.) alegand sa le prezinte in forma originala, ignorand echivalentele romanesti, metri sau kilometri, mai ales ca printr-o simpla introducere a unitatii de masura in engleza in casuta motorului de cautare google se ofera transformarea rapid si exact. O alta chestie sacaitoare mi s-a parut prezenta enumerarii unei pleiada de cuvinte de bine, o chestie nu neaparat neobisnuita, de altfel, pe care diverse reviste si personalitati le-au compus despre cartea de fata. Cred ca 4-6 citate ar fi fost de ajuns, dar acum depinde si de viziunea editorului.
Per total cartea este o lectura placuta, si era sa omit, la un moment dat apar si niste fantome, insa in opinia mea, cresc nivelul de ambiguitatea ce planeaza asupra scenariului, desi sunt binevenite. Daca va plac conspiratiile construite in jurul datelor medicale si cateva ipoteze surprinzatoare, daca ati dori sa aflati mai mult despre cultura indiana si in acelasi timp sa va destindeti cateva ore, Cromozomul Calcutta este o alegere buna.
http://www.cititorsf.ro/2008/10/12/cr...
Daca punctul de pornire are radacini puternic ancorate in realitate, continuarea este o adevarata opera de fictiune structurata sub forma de cadre, ce sunt prezentate succesiv, intr-o alternare continua, actiunea mutandu-se in timp inainte si inapoi.
Elementele de sci-fi sunt prezente minimal, remarcandu-se un supercalculator ce poate prelucra in detaliu orice informatie necesara omului, accentul fiind pus pe o asa zisa ipotetica conspiratie ce sta in spatele descoperirilor legate de malarie. Inlantuirea evenimentelor si secretivitatea excesiva ce invaluie actiunea impreuna cu modul in care interactioneaza personjele m-au facut sa ma simt intr-un Cod al lui da Vinci, insa dintr-o cu totul alta perspectiva.
Avem in fata o lectura usoara, destul de antrenanta, ce m-a surprins prin multitudinea informatiilor istorice dar si stiintifice vehiculate, cu o inlantuire cursiva a actiunii si personaje cu lipici la cititor.
Raman cu regretul ca nu am putut prinde cu adevarat partea finala. Am avut o imagine formata in urma modului in care s-au derulat evenimentele si directia in care a mers actiunea in ultimele pagini, autorul intervenind si complicand, de neinteles, cu un cadru final, intregul peisaj. Chiar sunt curios daca sunt si alte opinii.
In categoria nemultumiri si carcoteli, ar intra si constatarea ca Sir Ronald Ross, din ce am gasit pe internet aici si aici a luat premiul Nobel in 1902 si nu 1906, cum apare la inceputul cartii sub o poezie, poate gresesc, insa datele sunt evidente. Nu imi plac traducatorii ce folosesc unitatile de masura mila si picioare (mile, feet, eng.) alegand sa le prezinte in forma originala, ignorand echivalentele romanesti, metri sau kilometri, mai ales ca printr-o simpla introducere a unitatii de masura in engleza in casuta motorului de cautare google se ofera transformarea rapid si exact. O alta chestie sacaitoare mi s-a parut prezenta enumerarii unei pleiada de cuvinte de bine, o chestie nu neaparat neobisnuita, de altfel, pe care diverse reviste si personalitati le-au compus despre cartea de fata. Cred ca 4-6 citate ar fi fost de ajuns, dar acum depinde si de viziunea editorului.
Per total cartea este o lectura placuta, si era sa omit, la un moment dat apar si niste fantome, insa in opinia mea, cresc nivelul de ambiguitatea ce planeaza asupra scenariului, desi sunt binevenite. Daca va plac conspiratiile construite in jurul datelor medicale si cateva ipoteze surprinzatoare, daca ati dori sa aflati mai mult despre cultura indiana si in acelasi timp sa va destindeti cateva ore, Cromozomul Calcutta este o alegere buna.
http://www.cititorsf.ro/2008/10/12/cr...
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