Entry-Eight
Down on all fours in my own stateroom, in the way of a servile canine looking for affection from its master, I humiliated myself at the heel of the Indian girl called Padma and indulged an overpowering craving to obey her every command.
No matter how injurious I knew such obedience would be to my reputation, my self-respect, and my very soul itself.
The fact that I hated myself for doing so and would have wished to have worked the longest shift in the deepest, darkest and most narrow of coal mine seams rather than be in the position in which I found myself made no difference.
Somehow or other, the influence the mother had managed to gain over my free will had been shared with the daughter and I was no more capable of defying the younger Choudhary than I had been, and still
