Dinner And Desai

 

Let's take a break from the Time Patrol and remember one of my favorite Poul Anderson characters, Chunderban Desai, a good Terrestrial name no doubt although Desai is from Ramanujan, not from Terra. (I will shortly drive Aileen and Yossi for an afternoon of bird-watching and hopefully also a meal in the Plough so there will be no more posts for a few hours.)

One of my favorite scenes in all of Anderson's works is to be found in:

Poul Anderson, The Day Of Their Return IN Anderson, Captain Flandry: Defender Of The Terran Empire (Riverdale, NY, 2010), 3, pp. 82-85.

After the negotiations to end the Jihannath crisis, Desai and Uldwyr have dinner in a private room in a restaurant where there are (poor) wall animations but:

"...an inspired combination of human and Merseian dishes." (p. 83)

Uldwyr drinks Merseian ale whereas Desai prefers tea. Each is fluent in the other's principal language but finds it easier to speak in his own: Eriau or Anglic. They refer to Starkad, Jihannath, Talwin, Sector Alpha Crucis and the Domain of Ythri, all names that resonate in this series. These four pages summarize much. Back here later.