10月 15 2008
英语阅读 The White Tiger
今天的每日英语是刚刚获得布克奖的印度作家阿迪加的小说《白虎》(The White Tiger)节选。
Aravind Adiga
Now, I no longer watch Hindi films – on principle – but back in the days when I used to, just before the movie got started, either the number 786 would flash against the black screen – the Muslims think this is a magic number that represents their god – or else you would see the picture of a woman in a white sari with gold sovereigns dripping down to her feet, which is the goddess Lakhshmi, of the Hindus.
It is an ancient and veneratedcustom of people in my country to start a story by praying to a Higher Power. I guess, Your Excellency, that I too should start off by kissing some god’s arse.
Which god’s arse, though? There are so many choices.
See the Muslims have one god. The Christians have three gods. And we Hindus have 36,000,000 gods.
Making a grand total of 36,000,004 divine arses for me to choose from.
Now there are some, and I don’t just mean Communists like you, but thinking men of all political parties, who think that not many of these gods actually exist.
Some believe that none of them exist. There’s just us and an ocean of darkness around us. I’m no philosopher or poet, how would I know the truth? It’s true that all these gods seem to do awfully little work – much like our politicians – and yet keep winning re-election to their golden thrones in heaven, year after year.
