Word: bengals
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...survival story. Take an unlikely character, pluck him out of the anesthetized womb of daily life and toss him into a harsh environment. Test his physical endurance through hardship and privation, his will to live through isolation. And if at all possible, throw in a full-grown royal Bengal tiger...
...Bengal tigers in lifeboats and Indian boys who worship Allah, Jesus and Hindu gods could easily become precious, but Martel saves his novel from saccharine whimsy by grounding it in hard reality. He doesn't stint on the bloody details of a tiger's diet, or the immense physical suffering Pi is forced to endure. Martel has done his homework: if a tiger and an Indian boy found themselves floating in the Pacific, this is how each would respond. Most importantly, Martel doesn't make the mistake of anthropomorphizing his tiger. Richard Parker is an animal and a killer...
...What the East India Company did was to become a global narcotics cartel. To get the silver that paid for the Chinese caffeine fix, the company turned to dealing a far more sinister drug?opium. Company ships never brought opium into China, but its rich Bengal plantations fed the demand. Millions of Chinese would ultimately die as a result of addiction, and the trade set the stage for the Opium Wars in which China lost Hong Kong. This nasty bit of history is recounted near the very end of "Trading Places: The East India Company and Asia," a tantalizing...
...Anthony Farrington. "And Asian complicity in the business of making money." But the balance of power tilted after the military exploits of Company man Robert Clive transformed the firm into a territorial power. From private trading rights and "presents" from the locals, Company employees became rich while bleeding the Bengal economy. But the cost of expansion also nearly put the Company out of business, drawing the British government into India...
...Unlike earthquakes or avalanches, a cyclone can be predicted. Meteorologists warned that a supercyclone was brewing in the Bay of Bengal three days before it hit. Giridhar Gamang, Chief Minister of Orissa, took unusual precautionary measures. According to Banerjee, he called in three powerful astrologers and kept a personal vigil as they appealed to the gods to deflect the storm. As frenzied winds snapped telecommunications and power lines, the pundits assured their boss he had little to fear. One said Gamang's stars would protect the state. Another predicted the cyclone would miraculously split into two, dodging Orissa. The third...