Chapter 29

Why do people move? What makes them uproot¹ and leaveeverything they've known for a great unknown beyond thehorizon? Why climb this Mount Everest of formalities thatmakes you feel like a beggar? Why enter this jungle offoreignness where everything is new, strange and difficult?
The answer is the same the world over: people move in thehope of a better life.
The mid-1970s were troubled times in India. I gathered thatfrom the deep furrows³ that appeared on Father's foreheadwhen he read the papers. Or from snippets of conversationthat I caught between him and Mother and Mamaji andothers. It's not that I didn't understand the drift of what theysaid – it's that I wasn't interested. The orang-utans were aseager for chapattis as ever; the monkeys never asked after thenews from Delhi; the rhinos⁴ and goats continued to live inpeace; the birds twittered; the clouds carried rain; the sun washot; the earth breathed; God was – there was no Emergencyin my world.
Mrs. Gandhi finally got the best of Father. In February 1976,the Tamil Nadu government was brought down by Delhi. Ithad been one of Mrs. Gandhi's most vocal⁵ critics. The takeoverwas smoothly⁶ enforced – Chief Minister Karunanidhi's ministryvanished quietly into "resignation" or house arrest – and whatdoes the fall of one local government matter when the wholecountry's Constitution has been suspended these last eightmonths? But it was to Father the crowning touch in Mrs.
Gandhi's dictatorial⁷ takeover of the nation. The camel at thezoo was unfazed, but that straw broke Father's back.
He shouted, "Soon she'll come down to our zoo and tell usthat her jails are full, she needs more space. Could we putDesai with the lions?"Morarji Desai was an opposition⁸ politician. No friend of Mrs.
Gandhi's. It makes me sad, my father's ceaseless worrying. Mrs.
Gandhi could have personally bombed the zoo, it would havebeen fine with me if Father had been gay about it. I wish hehadn't fretted⁹ so much. It's hard on a son to see his fathersick with worry.
But worry he did. Any business is risky¹⁰ business, and nonemore so than small b business, the one that risks the shirt onits back. A zoo is a cultural institution. Like a public library, likea museum, it is at the service of popular education andscience. And by this token, not much of a money-makingventure, for the Greater Good and the Greater Profit are notcompatible aims, much to Father's chagrin¹¹. The truth was, wewere not a rich family, certainly not by Canadian standards.
We were a poor family that happened to own a lot of animals,though not the roof above their heads (or above ours, for thatmatter). The life of a zoo, like the life of its inhabitants in thewild, is precarious¹². It is neither big enough a business to beabove the law nor small enough to survive on its margins¹³. Toprosper, a zoo needs parliamentary government, democraticelections, freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom ofassociation, rule of law and everything else enshrined in India'sConstitution. Impossible to enjoy the animals otherwise.
Long-term, bad politics is bad for business.
People move because of the wear and tear of anxiety.
Because of the gnawing¹⁴ feeling that no matter how hard theywork their efforts will yield nothing, that what they build up inone year will be torn down in one day by others. Because ofthe impression that the future is blocked up, that they mightdo all right but not their children. Because of the feeling thatnothing will change, that happiness and prosperity are possibleonly somewhere else.
The New India split to pieces and collapsed¹⁵ in Father's mind.
Mother assented¹⁶. We would bolt.
It was announced to us one evening during dinner. Raviand I were thunderstruck. Canada! If Andhra Pradesh, justnorth of us, was alien, if Sri Lanka, a monkey's hop² across astrait, was the dark side of the moon, imagine what Canadawas. Canada meant absolutely nothing to us. It was likeTimbuktu, by definition a place permanently¹⁷ far away.

1 uproot   

v.连根拔起，拔除；根除，灭绝；赶出家园，被迫移开

参考例句：

• The family decided to uproot themselves and emigrate to Australia.他们全家决定离开故土，移居澳大利亚。
• The trunk of an elephant is powerful enough to uproot trees.大象的长鼻强壮得足以将树木连根拔起。

2 hop   

n.单脚跳，跳跃；vi.单脚跳，跳跃；着手做某事；vt.跳跃，跃过

参考例句：

• The children had a competition to see who could hop the fastest.孩子们举行比赛，看谁单足跳跃最快。
• How long can you hop on your right foot?你用右脚能跳多远？

3 furrows   

n.犁沟( furrow的名词复数 )；（脸上的）皱纹v.犁田，开沟( furrow的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• I could tell from the deep furrows in her forehead that she was very disturbed by the news. 从她额头深深的皱纹上，我可以看出她听了这个消息非常不安。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Dirt bike trails crisscrossed the grassy furrows. 越野摩托车的轮迹纵横交错地布满条条草沟。 来自辞典例句

4 rhinos   

n.犀牛（rhino的复数形式）

参考例句：

• There are many reports of people taming and even training Indian rhinos. 有许多关于人们驯养甚至训练印度犀牛的记载。 来自辞典例句
• The rhinos had fed during the night in the rice fields of these villagers. 犀牛夜里在这些村民的庄稼地里也已吃饱了。 来自辞典例句

5 vocal   

adj.直言不讳的；嗓音的；n.[pl.]声乐节目

参考例句：

• The tongue is a vocal organ.舌头是一个发音器官。
• Public opinion at last became vocal.终于舆论哗然。

6 smoothly   

adv.平滑地，顺利地，流利地，流畅地

参考例句：

• The workmen are very cooperative,so the work goes on smoothly.工人们十分合作，所以工作进展顺利。
• Just change one or two words and the sentence will read smoothly.这句话只要动一两个字就顺了。

7 dictatorial   

adj. 独裁的，专断的

参考例句：

• Her father is very dictatorial.她父亲很专横。
• For years the nation had been under the heel of a dictatorial regime.多年来这个国家一直在独裁政权的铁蹄下。

8 opposition   

n.反对，敌对

参考例句：

• The party leader is facing opposition in his own backyard.该党领袖在自己的党內遇到了反对。
• The police tried to break down the prisoner's opposition.警察设法制住了那个囚犯的反抗。

9 fretted   

焦躁的，附有弦马的，腐蚀的

参考例句：

• The wind whistled through the twigs and fretted the occasional, dirty-looking crocuses. 寒风穿过枯枝，有时把发脏的藏红花吹刮跑了。 来自英汉文学
• The lady's fame for hitting the mark fretted him. 这位太太看问题深刻的名声在折磨着他。

10 risky   

adj.有风险的，冒险的

参考例句：

• It may be risky but we will chance it anyhow.这可能有危险，但我们无论如何要冒一冒险。
• He is well aware how risky this investment is.他心里对这项投资的风险十分清楚。

11 chagrin   

n.懊恼；气愤；委屈

参考例句：

• His increasingly visible chagrin sets up a vicious circle.他的明显的不满引起了一种恶性循环。
• Much to his chagrin,he did not win the race.使他大为懊恼的是他赛跑没获胜。

12 precarious   

adj.不安定的，靠不住的；根据不足的

参考例句：

• Our financial situation had become precarious.我们的财务状况已变得不稳定了。
• He earned a precarious living as an artist.作为一个艺术家，他过得是朝不保夕的生活。

13 margins   

边( margin的名词复数 )； 利润； 页边空白； 差数

参考例句：

• They have always had to make do with relatively small profit margins. 他们不得不经常设法应付较少的利润额。
• To create more space between the navigation items, add left and right margins to the links. 在每个项目间留更多的空隙，加左或者右的margins来定义链接。

14 gnawing   

a.痛苦的，折磨人的

参考例句：

• The dog was gnawing a bone. 那狗在啃骨头。
• These doubts had been gnawing at him for some time. 这些疑虑已经折磨他一段时间了。

15 collapsed   

adj.倒塌的

参考例句：

• Jack collapsed in agony on the floor. 杰克十分痛苦地瘫倒在地板上。
• The roof collapsed under the weight of snow. 房顶在雪的重压下突然坍塌下来。

16 assented   

同意，赞成( assent的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• The judge assented to allow the prisoner to speak. 法官同意允许犯人申辩。
• "No," assented Tom, "they don't kill the women -- they're too noble. “对，”汤姆表示赞同地说，“他们不杀女人——真伟大！

17 permanently   

adv.永恒地，永久地，固定不变地

参考例句：

• The accident left him permanently scarred.那次事故给他留下了永久的伤疤。
• The ship is now permanently moored on the Thames in London.该船现在永久地停泊在伦敦泰晤士河边。