Zero Degree Read online

  There is a ski jump competition in progress. Steiner* has reached a distance of 189 meters. If he had tried for another nine meters, he might have died—or broken the world record.

  * The Great Ecstasy of Sculptor Steiner – film by Werner Herzog

  † Renhold Messner in The Dark Glow of the Mountains – film by Werner Herzog

  I had a pet raven. It lost all its feathers. Afterwards, as it was strolling about on the terrace, a murder of crows flew in from somewhere and began to attack it. I tried to chase them away but they would not stop their assault. I ran downstairs, brought up my gun, and shot down my raven. I want to be alone in this world. Humans scare me. Only on these cold slopes do I find solace.

  He† is climbing Mount Karakoram in the Himalayas. He loves mountain climbing; he wants to spend the rest of his life doing nothing else but scaling lofty peaks. Once he gets to the summit, he’ll search for another mountain and then another and another and another.

  The frozen rock towers into the sky. Eighteen thousand feet—it’s just a number. The skies and seas and mountains seem to recede from me.

  Goat antelope, which are neither goats nor antelope, are racing around on the icy fields below.

  I’ve lost count of the days

  Herds of animals, waves of shadow

  A figure leaps into the air

  I am merged with the snowy peak

  Silence

  Wordless empty void

  I want to liberate my thoughts

  from the crashing waves that surround them

  I reject all the words of my life

  to kneel here

  loving you

  Will my very breath now freeze as well?

  Say the Word

  TAMIL FAMILY NAMES AND FORMS OF ADDRESS

  amma

  mother

  appa

  father

  anna

  elder brother (or any older man)

  akka

  elder sister

  anni

  sister-in-law; elder brother’s wife

  mama

  maternal uncle, or paternal aunt’s

  husband

  paati

  grandmother, or any old woman

  da

  informal masculine address

  di

  feminine address, used with a younger person, or disrespectfully

  dey

  masculine address, disrespectful or angry

  NO T E S

  11 Existentialism and Fancy Banyan

  the author’s first novel, featuring many of the same characters

  11 mayi avaa… Dhi phudhdhi

  Hindi: “my sister was dick mom was dick mom was cunt”

  13 randi nondi…kindi kendi

  Some of this is gibberish, some is not: “Streetwalker, cripple, sondi, pandi, mandi, ass, pussy crust, milk feeder, kendi”

  15 “When a banyan tree… the Earth will quake.”

  Rajiv Gandhi’s comment on the anti-Sikh riots of 1984 following Indira Gandhi’s assassination

  15 Aatha Un Koyilile

  Mother, in Your Temple—a 1991 Tamil film

  15 En Pottukku Sondhakaaran

  The Owner of my Pottu (bindi)—not an actual film

  16 En Purushan Thaan Enakku Mattum Thaan

  My Husband is Mine Alone—a 1989 Tamil film

  17 Patwari

  member of a landowning caste

  17 poromboke

  land that is neither owned by any individual nor

  specifically state-owned

  24 lathi

  policeman’s baton

  27 Puratchithilakam

  Jewel of the Revolution—not an actual film

  27 Puratchithilakam I.P.S.

  Jewel of the Revolution, Indian Police Service

  27 ahimsa

  policy of non-violence as advocated by Mahatma Gandhi

  27 & 28 Radhika… Rajyasri, RAW

  these are names of film actresses, all starting with the Tamil letter ra; RAW is also the acronym of the Research and Analysis Wing, India’s external intelligence agency

  28 Pullukul Kal

  Stone Inside a Blade of Grass—not an actual film

  28 Jayasudha… Banupriya

  well-known film actresses

  32 zarda beeda

  betel leaf packed with strong tobacco

  33 Santhal tribe

  the largest tribal community in India; 10,000 Santhals rebelled against the British colonists in 1855

  38 Margazhi

  ninth month of the Tamil calendar; December 15-January 14

  39 Kurumbur Kuppusami

  writer of Tamil pulp fiction active in the mid-20th century

  39 Parveen Babi

  Hindi film actress popular in the 1970s

  41 & 42 Maa aap sanket… jhoothe banaata houn

  Hindi: “Because my Mom is having sex, I have to lie around in your room”

  42 Arrey bachche, teri maa kidhar gayee?

  Hindi: “Hey kid, where’s your mother gone?”

  43 punkawallah

  manual fan operator

  44 ghazal

  a poetic musical form from North India

  50 didi

  elder sister or cousin—in this case, the elder brother’s wife (Hindi)

  50 beti

  daughter, in this case daughter-in-law (Hindi)

  52 gopuram

  tapering South Indian temple tower

  54 pallangkuzhi

  a game played with cowry shells; a form of mancala

  55 thumri

  a Hindustani semi-classical music composition

  57 Aryan yoni

  “Aryan”, here as in all of India, is understood to indicate descent from those who came from Central Asia over the Khyber Pass in prehistory, especially members of the Brahmin and Kshatriya castes—as opposed to ethnic Dravidians. Yoni, of course, is Sanskrit for vagina

  58 Karuppan

  a Tamil man’s name meaning “black”

  59 Kannathil muthumittal…

  lyrics by Bharathiyar, early 20th century Tamil poet

  72 vaal

  Tamil for the sound of a dog’s bark

 
76 a minister in your country... to eat rats

  this is a reference to comments made by Lalu Prasad Yadav, former Chief Minister of the state of Bihar

  80 defile

  the word here is karpazhippu, literally “to erase a woman’s chastity”, formerly used as a euphemism for sexual abuse/rape in the Tamil media. In 1986, the National Women’s Front agitated successfully to end the use of this word (and its analogs in other Indian languages) because of the implication that sex with an “unchaste” woman is never rape. It was replaced in Tamil with balatkaaram, “to sexually overpower”

  81 Mudevi

  goddess of bad luck; opposite of Sridevi

  82 pallu

  the end of a sari that is left free to cover the woman’s chest

  82 phir bhi

  Hindi: “in spite of that”

  83 sign

  the word used is kuri, which signifies both “sign” and “penis”

  87 vilambit

  an introductory slow tempo in Hindustani classical music

  90 dhaba

  roadside cafeteria

  91 Lal Salaam

  Hindi: “Red Salute.” Typically used by commu-nists throughout South Asia both as a greeting and a goodbye

  94 Thayumanavan… and this is how they named me

  Thayumanavan is a Hindu name, meaning “he who is also the mother.” The historical figure Thayumanavar (eighteenth century?) composed mystical poems in Tamil combining the philoso- phies of Vedanta and Saiva Siddhanta

  97 Bheema

  second Pandava brother in the Mahabharata

  97 Duryodhana

  eldest Kaurava brother in the Mahabharata

  102 veshti

  a four-yard length of cloth worn on the lower body by men

  103 varma

  martial art practiced in Kerala

  103 bharatanatyam

  classical dance of South India

  103 sacred thread

  poonal, a white thread worn around the shoulder by men of the “upper” castes (Brahmins, etc.), signifying that they have been “twice-born”

  104 chappals

  sandals, slippers

  109 Pichamurthi

  Naa. Pichamurthi, a well-known 20th century Tamil writer

  115 Kokogam

  any of several ancient Tamil manuscripts on sex

  115 A woman named Kannagi… I am Ilango

  Ilango Adigal was the author of the 5th century Tamil epic Silappathikaaram, of which Kannagi is the heroine. Kannagi tears off her breast and throws it on town of Madurai, thereby burning it down. This is contrasted with the 1997 bombing of the Pandian Express train to Madurai

  134 Hanle

  site of the Indian Astronomical Observatory

  134 Nano mi vida, Nano mi niña

  Spanish: “Nano my life, Nano my baby girl”

  134 algunos aspectos del cuento

  Spanish: “some aspects of the count”

  143 suburbs

  the understanding here is of lower-middle-class neighborhoods surrounding the (wealthier) city

  145 Nine fruits for nine rupees

  the word used is actually ombodhu, which means eunuch (hijra), instead of onpadhu, nine

  150 Brihanala

  in the Mahabharata, the disguised Arjuna assumes in the thirteenth year of his exile, as the eunuch dance teacher of Princess Uthara

  151 record dance

  a dance show given on a small platform on a street corner by a woman or eunuch dressed in heavily-sequined bra and panties, dancing to raunchy film songs, typically with a man riding a bicycle around and around the gathered crowd for hours into the night

  155 my younger sister’s daughter

  while marriage to a cross cousin (father’s sister’s son or mother’s brother’s son) would be considered favorable, Aarthi’s marriage to a parallel cousin is considered incestuous

  156 thevidiya

  literally woman wedded to God; traditionally, a member of a caste of temple-dancers, used sexually by the feudal lords and temple trustees. The practice was officially abolished in 1934; the term survives as an insult

  161 arivaalmanai

  blade fixed to a piece of wood, used for chopping vegetables

  166 naina

  father (Telugu)

  178 Azhagi

  beauty, beautiful one

  183 panchayat

  district-level elected body

  191 thali and a pair of

  toe-rings

  both are symbols of a married South Indian Hindu woman. The thali is a gold chain or turmeric-smeared cord, tied around the woman’s neck by the groom in the wedding ceremony

  191 Amman

  goddess

  195 Seth

  North Indian pawnbroker St. Thomas Mount the Tamil name Parangimalai, literally “white man’s hill,” is used

  203 St. Thomas Mount

  the Tamil Nadu Parangimalai, literally ‘‘white man’s hill,’’ is used

  205 Copper T

  a type of intrauterine contraceptive device

  205 slokas

  Sanskrit prayers

  213 annas

  1/16th of a rupee, an obsolete denomination

  216 Prabanja Kaalam

  The Universal Times; not an actual newspaper

  218 …Brahminized the entire Gounder culture

  the majority of the Gounder caste supported the atheist-leaning, anti-Brahmin Dravidian Movement of the 1950s, known for non-religious “self-respect” weddings

  219 vallaikappu

  ceremony held in the seventh month of a woman’s first pregnancy

  226 “Wills hai?” “Bills nahi hai” Hindi: “Do you have Wills [cigarettes]?” “No, no Bills.”

  In some parts of North India, ‘V’ is pronounced as ‘B’

  226 matkas

  small handmade clay cups, used and then discarded

  226 Nappinnai

  another name for Aandal, the poet, referring to herself in the third person as Krishna’s lover

  226 Madhava

  a name of Krishna

  226 harikatha

  a form of devotional storytelling

  227 Kannan

  a name of Krishna

 
227 Perumal… Ranga

  Ranganathan Perumal is an avatar of Vishnu. This is nindhastudi, a way of talking to God where the petitioner demands blessings, without formal respect

  232 Yaksha

  a mythical creature; something like a sphinx, but able to take different forms

  234 bechara

  Hindi: “poor child”, “urchin”

  234 Delhi to dilwale

  Hindi: “Delhi is for the brave at heart!” ka hai!

  235 Vikramadithya’s vampire

  the monster from the story Vetala Panchvimshati, who searches for a soul to sacrifice for its own redemption

  237 Sukra

  the god of the planet Venus, who is obsessed with love for his daughter

  238 Karna