Today's Reading
CHAPTER ONE
"What did I miss?" Dr. Robert Holmes asked, sounding out of breath.
Sergeant Akal Singh raised a hand to his forehead to shield his eyes against the brilliant sunshine. Even so, he had to squint as he looked up at the doctor, who had arrived at the cricket ground twenty minutes later than he had promised. Akal looked with envy at the hats of the men around him. Not an option with his turban in place.
"Nothing much," Constable Taviti Tukana replied. Taviti had questioned Akal about this game they called cricket many times, but still didn't understand why the British and the Indians in Suva were all so mad for it. As far as Akal could tell, Taviti came along to these Sunday matches to flirt with the ladies in attendance. "Sergeant Singh hasn't had his turn hitting the ball yet."
"Batting," the doctor and Akal corrected in concert. Taviti shrugged indifferently.
"We are waiting for the inspector-general before we can start. And half of the other team are missing," Akal explained to the doctor. The match today was ostensibly to raise money for the Fiji Contingent Fund, which would pay for a small group of British subjects to make their way to Europe so they could enlist to fight in the war. It was also a grudge match, the Suva Constabulary versus the civil service—the officers of the Fijian colonial administration.
"Ah, well, they were all with me, stuck in a last-minute meeting with the governor. Some war updates came in over the telegraph," Robert informed them gravely as he sat down on the bench next to Akal. "That disastrous battle in Turkey last week. There were a lot of Australians killed. The names have started coming through, and the Australians here are worried about their people."
Akal had heard that there were Indians in that battle as well, but it seemed the governor didn't think they warranted a mention. He wondered if any of his friends had lost their lives. While he worked within the British Empire by going to Hong Kong and joining the police service, some of the boys in his village in the Punjab had joined the British Indian Army. Could they have been part of this battle? Akal quickly dismissed the thought, pushing away the lurking sense of dread. He would likely never know.
"I think they might be a while. I don't have the stomach to dwell on it all, but a lot of the others stayed back to talk about it," the doctor continued. "You've probably got a bit of time before your famous bowling arm is required, Akal."
"Batting," said Taviti cheekily.
"No. Bowling," said Akal, rotating his arm through the bowling motion. Taviti shrugged indifferently again, while Akal turned to Dr. Holmes. "What other information did we receive on the war?"
Dr. Holmes grimaced, clearly reluctant to revisit the topic, but filled them in on what he had learnt of the battle. The Australian and New Zealand Army Corps had landed on a beach, somewhere called Gallipoli, and had met strong resistance from the Turkish troops. Despite heavy losses, they had dug in and were at a stalemate with the Turks.
"It all feels very far away from here," the doctor concluded, gesturing towards the crowd who had gathered for the long-awaited game of cricket.
Everyone was in their Sunday best. The well-heeled Europeans, sitting on chairs in the shade of a cluster of trees, had trickled over from their post-church lunch at the adjacent Grand Pacific Hotel. Dominated by British, Australians, and New Zealanders, these were the elite of the backwater colony of Fiji, one of the last acquisitions of the British Empire. Many were part of the colonial administration, and a few were plantation owners who had come to Suva for a break in the nearest thing they had to a cosmopolitan metropolis.
The ladies sat gossiping under parasols and hats, protecting themselves from the sun as best they could, drinking lemonade brought across on trays from the hotel by uniformed waitstaff. The men stood plucking gin and tonics from the same trays. The planters were easy to identify, sporting the leathery, tanned faces of men who couldn't avoid the sun.
Across the field from the Europeans, the Indians, sitting cross-legged on woven mats, were largely the shop owners in Suva, the more prosperous of the Indians in the colony. Most of them had paid their own way from India to seek business opportunities. There were one or two who had made it through their five years of indenture and had scrambled their way to the top of the food chain in their own community.
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