Dhar himself was at that moment sleeping on Dr Daruwalla’s balcony. However, the customs official who looked back and forth from the intense expression of the new missionary to the utterly bland passport photograph of Martin Mills was convinced that he stood face-to-face with Inspector Dhar. The Hawaiian shirt was a mild surprise, for the customs official couldn’t imagine why Dhar would attempt to conceal himself as a tourist; similarly, shaving off the identifying Dhar mustache was a lame disguise – with the upper lip exposed, something of the inimitable Dhar sneer was even more pronounced. It was a U.S. passport – that was clever! thought the customs official – but the passport admitted that this so-called Martin Mills had been born in Bombay. The customs official pointed to this evidence in the passport; then he winked at the missionary, as a way of indicating to Inspector Dhar that this customs official was nobody’s fool. Martin Mills was very tired; it had been a long flight, which he’d spent studying Hindi and otherwise informing himself of the particulars of ‘native behavior.’ He knew all about the salaam, for example, but the customs official had distinctly winked at him – he had not salaamed — and Martin Mills hadn’t encountered any information regarding the wink in his reading about native behavior.
