Chapter 27

Later that evening I overheard my parents speaking.

"You said yes?" said Father.

"I believe he asked you too. You referred him to me," replied Mother.

"Did I?"

"You did."

"I had a very busy day..."

"You're not busy now. You're quite comfortably unemployed by the looks of it. If you want to march into his room and pull the prayer rug from under his feet and discuss the question of Christian baptism with him, please go ahead. I won't object."

"No, no." I could tell from his voice that Father was settling deeper into his chair. There was a pause.

"He seems to be attracting religions the way a dog attracts fleas, he pursued. "I don't understand it. We're a modern Indian family; we live in a modern way, India is on the cusp of becoming a truly modern and advanced nation-and here we've produced a son who thinks he's the reincarnation of Sri Ramakrishna."

"If Mrs. Gandhi is what being modern and advanced is about, I'm not sure I like it," Mother said.

"Mrs. Gandhi will pass! Progress is unstoppable. It is a drumbeat to which we must all march. Technology helps and good ideas spread-these are two laws of nature. If you don't let technology help you, if you resist good ideas, you condemn yourself to dinosaurhood! I am utterly convinced of this. Mrs. Gandhi and her foolishness will pass. The New India will come."

(Indeed she would pass. And the New India, or one family of it, would decide to move to Canada.)

Father went on: "Did you hear when he said, 'Bapu Gandhi said, "All religions are true"'?"

"Yes."

"Bapu Gandhi? The boy is getting to be on affectionate terms with Gandhi? After Daddy Gandhi, what next? Uncle Jesus? And what's this nonsense-has he really become a Muslim?"

"It seems so."

"A Muslim! A devout Hindu, all right, I can understand. A Christian in addition, it's getting to be a bit strange, but I can stretch my mind. The Christians have been here for a long time-Saint Thomas, Saint Francis Xavier, the missionaries and so on. We owe them good schools."

"Yes."

"So all that I can sort of accept. But Muslim? It's totally foreign to our tradition. They're outsiders."

"They've been here a very long time too. They're a hundred times more numerous than the Christians."

"That makes no difference. They're outsiders."

"Perhaps Piscine is marching to a different drumbeat of progress."

"You're defending the boy? You don't mind it that he's fancying himself a Muslim?"

"What can we do, Santosh? He's taken it to heart, and it's not doing anyone any harm. Maybe it's just a phase. It too may pass-like Mrs. Gandhi."

"Why can't he have the normal interests of a boy his age? Look at Ravi. All he can think about is cricket, movies and music."

"You think that's better?"

"No, no. Oh, I don't know what to think. It's been a long day." He sighed. "I wonder how far he'll go with these interests."

Mother chuckled. "Last week he finished a book called The Imitation of Christ."

"The Imitation of Christ! I say again, I wonder how far he'll go with these interests!" cried Father.

They laughed.

   第二十七章

    那天晚上晚些时候，我偶尔听到父母在说话。

    “你说了可以？”父亲说。

    “我相信他也问过你。你让他来找我。"母亲回答。

    “是吗？”

    “是的。"

    “我今天很忙……”

    “你现在不忙。看上去你挺舒服清闲。如果你想走迸他的房间，把跪垫从他膝下抽出来，和他讨论基督教洗礼问题，那就去厂吧。我不会反对的。"

    “不，不。”我能从父亲的声音听出来，他朝椅子里陷得更深了。片刻的停顿。

    “他就像狗招引跳蚤一样招引宗教，”他接着说道，“我不明白。我们是一个现代的印度家庭；我们以现代的方式生活；印度正处在朝着真正现代和进步的国家过渡的高峰期

    ，而我们却生了这么一个儿子，他以为自己是罗摩克里希纳（罗摩克星希纳(1836-1886)．印度教改革家的思想，宗教哲学家，提出“人类宗教的思想”，认为各种宗教目的都是要

    达到与神的结合。）的化身。"

    “如果现代和进步就是甘地夫人，那我可小能确定自己是否喜欢。"母亲说。

    “甘地夫人会成为过去的！进步不可阻挡。这是我们大家都必须随之而前进的鼓点。技术可以帮助我们，好的思想传播开来——这是两条自然规律。如果你不让技术帮忙，如

    果你拒绝好的思想，那你就只好回到恐龙时代了！我对这一点确信无疑。甘地夫人和她的愚蠢会成为过去的。新印度一定会到来。"

    （她当然会过去的。而新印度，或者它的一个家庭，会决定搬到加拿大去。）

    父亲继续说道：“你有没有听见他说：‘甘地老爹说过，'所有宗教都是有道理的'？"

    “听见了。"

    “甘地老爹？这个孩子已经和甘地有如此亲密的关系了吗？现在是甘地爸爸，下面是什么？耶稣叔叔？这是什么样的荒唐事啊——他真的成了穆斯林了吗？”

    “似乎是这样。"

    “穆斯林！做个虔诚的印度教徒，好吧，我能理解。还是一个基督教徒，这变得有点儿怪，但我可以绞尽脑汁来接受。基督徒在这里生活了很长时间——圣多马，圣方济各·

    沙勿略，传教士，等等。我们有好学校得归功于他们。

    “是的。”

    “因此所有这一切我都可以接受。但是穆斯林？这在我们的传统中完全是陌生的东西。他们是外来者。”

    “他们也在这里生活了很长时间。他们的数量比基督教徒多好几百倍。"

    “这不起作用。他们是外来者。”

    “也许派西尼在随着不同的鼓点前进。”

    “你是在为这个孩子辩护吗？你不在乎他认为自己是穆斯林？”

    “我们能怎么办呢，桑托什？他非常喜欢，而这又不对任何人造成伤害。也许这只是一个阶段。这也会过去的，就像甘地夫人一样。’’

    “为什么他不能和同龄孩子一样有正常的兴趣呢？看看拉维。他整天想的就是板球、电影和音乐。"

    “你认为这样更好吗？”

    “不，不。噢，我都不知道该怎么想了。今天可真是漫长的一天啊o"他叹了口气。“我不知道他对这些会感兴趣到什么程度。"

    母亲格格笑了起来。“上星期他看完了一本书，书名是<模仿基督》。”

    “模仿基督！我又要说了，我不知道他对这些会感兴趣到什么程度！”父亲叫道。

    他们大笑起来。