Chapter 6 Summary

Muktananandaji relates being brought up in village poverty and being sent off to school and university to lessen the strain on his family. In Calcutta he soon finds himself desperate but is befriended by a a brilliant student, Sanjay, a political radical and part-time goon. Muktananandaji is soon indebted to Sanjay and learns how to survive cheaply in the city. He is surprised when Sanjay invites him to his introduction to the Kapalika Society. Knowing the Kapalikas' reputation for terror in the name of the Kali, Muktananandaji is surprised at how dignified the members are and how moving the somewhat familiar rituals. The pair are asked to return the next week, when they participate in a formal initiation ceremony in a warehouse-like temple.

The idol of Kali, small but fearsome, stands on an actual, reeking corpse, and the hand that is supposed to...