The young Tamangs, being inseparable, are exclusive, and so Tukten dines commonly with Bimbahadur, who is dull and gentle, a stumpy old lump-headed bumbler with gnarled legs and worn feet, who clings to his guardsman’s moustache and remnant regimental rags. He, too, merely tolerates Tukten, for Bimbahadur has withdrawn from life; he must be with people, to earn his keep, but not among them—in the world but not of it, as the Sufis say. Side by side, hunched low in the light rain, the two outcasts dip up tsampa, the roasted maize or barley meal, ground to powder and cooked as porridge or in tea,
...more
