The Seventh Seal Revisited: 1998-99

The great Swedish Director Ingmar Bergman’s film, The Seventh Seal, released in 1957 made quite an impression; some say that it is the greatest film ever made; the film is set in the background of the Black Death in Sweden and depicts the travels of a mediaeval knight (brilliantly played by Max von Sydow) through the Swedish countryside playing a game of chess with the Grim Reaper, and discussing at the same time, the meaning of life and the existence of God; in a way, we are all traversing our lives, playing the same game every day, but most of us do not ask the kinds of questions raised in the film. Most of the days though, we do not even think of the game that we are in. There are times however, when this game looms large over us. Bergman and the protagonist, Bloch are aware that the Grim Reaper ultimately wins; it is just a question of delaying the inevitable. I am going to describe the events during 1998-99 when I felt that I was following the mediaeval knight closely, with the Grim Reaper making threatening moves and how I, hoping to delay the inevitable outcome, was forced into the ‘game’.

The year 1998 had started out well for me, I thought. I had received a letter from a friend in Tsukuba University, Yuji Kubo, who I got to know during a previous visit to Tsukuba. He reminded me of my promise to come back to Tsukuba and that he was holding on to a position for me but that he could not hold on much longer and asking me whether I would be able to come that year. The previous year I had not been able to accept the offer, so this time fortunately I was able to get leave and accept and started planning. However the Grim Reaper had made a move, which I got to hear of in a day or two.

The next message from Yuji Kubo made frightening reading; he had been diagnosed with a cancerous tumour in the esophagus and had been advised immediate surgery which was going to happen soon. The Grim Reaper had located a weakness in Kubo’s defense and was moving in very quickly; apparently, the cancer was a fast spreading one and within a few days of the surgery, Professor Yuji Kubo had breathed his last.

Now in Japan, when you visit any department in any University or academic institution, there is a well defined position of a host. Kubo naturally was to have been mine and with his passing, I had realised that matters relating to my visit were in jeopardy. I was also quite taken aback by the turn of events and was contemplating my next step. I was actively considering cancelling my plans.

While I was in this state of indecisiveness, I received a mail from Professor Kuroda who identified himself as a friend of Yuji Kubo, telling me that in spite of the turn of events, I should continue to make my plans to travel to Tsukuba: he had seen the mails between Yuji and myself and given that courses had to be taught, and that we were almost on the brink of the semester starting, they had no way of finding a replacement for Kubo. And further he would be very happy to act as my host during my tenure. I recall I was moved by Professor Yoshimi Kuroda’s mail and wrote back that I would be coming. Almost my first task on reaching Tsukuba, was to present an eulogy of my friend Yuji Kubo. The department had insisted that I should be one of the speakers from the department and that another colleague would provide a translation of what I said. We worked out a pattern whereby I would speak for minute or two and then he would translate. Professor Yuji Kubo had been a practicing Christian and the entire ceremony was organised in the Church that he belonged to. It was a sombre occasion and I had to borrow a black tie to go with my black jacket. Ten years ago we had met and one of the things that drew us close was the fact that we had studied under a well known Japanese economist, Akira Takayama; he at Purdue and I at Rochester, at different times. I mentioned this and at the end of my talk, while we are standing around, a lady approached me and spoke to me in English; she was Mrs Akira Takayama. I had studied under Akira Takayama in Rochester in 1969-70 and I recalled, that’s when they had just married. It was a surprise runnng into her; the world is not that big a place, after all. At that time Akira Takayama was no more and Mrs Takayama was in Japan. Professor Yuji Kubo’s elder brother approached and through the translator spoke to me about his appreciation of my comments. I felt quite awkward given the circumstances.

The academic grind picked up next and Professor Kuroda laid it down that apart from whatever teaching duties had been decided between Kubo and myself, I would have to teach the graduate seminar in Growth and Development that was Kubo’s and for which there was good demand among the PhD students. I could teach that course but since I did not work in the area, it would be unfair to the students, I tried to argue. But it was useless, his mind was made up. I got the course pushed back to the last quarter of my stay. Professor Kuroda sprang another suprise: Yuji had agreed to review Yujiro Hayami’s book Development Economics, which had just appeared, for a journal that Kuroda edited. Now Hayami was one of the most respected economist in the field of Development Economics in Japan and I did try to get out of that more strenously. Debraj Ray’s book of the same title arrived at the same time. Kuroda noticed the book on my table and since he had not seen the book, he picked it up and noticed the ‘For Anjan da’ over Debraj’s signature and said that this established my credential as a scholar in the area and that I should not hesitate any more. So here I was saddled with a review as well as a course which ordinarily, I would not have attempted.

Professor Kuroda proved to be an admirable host thereafter; he used to invite his students and some of them were my students as well, for parties where we ate and drank, in his garden. There was bar-be-cue but what was being roasted was fish and any amount of beer and there was good cheer. The trout, it was mostly trout, was fresh and tasty. During the new year, the Japanese festival of rice pounding and eating rice cakes ( kagami mochi) once again held in Kuroda-san’s garden, and beer were enjoyable. I was taken in to be a colleague and accepted unequivocally. Professor Hayami turned up in the department to address Professor Kuroda’s seminar and wanted to meet me. By then I had finished the review and apparently Hayami liked the review. So I had discharged the reponsibility adequately. So much so that Hayami acknowledged my comments in the second edition of his book. The course too seemed to go somewhat better than anticipated. Academic matters seemed to have been taken care of and I was fast approaching the end of the quarter and was looking forward to our son joining us. Our social life was helped tremendously by the fact that Anit Mukherjee who had been our student in JNU was then a graduate student in the department. And through him, we got to know Mahmuda Akhter and Mahfuz-ul Hoque from Bangladesh and a lot of the other friends of Anit as well. The quality of social interactions, specially for my wife, improved tremendously, particularly since Anit took on, effortlessly, the role of our interpreter and chauffeur. And we are grateful that he devoted so much time to us. Our life in Japan minus Anit’s presence would have been rather dull.

It was then that the Grim Reaper decided the we had enough fun and games and made a move. I heard from my parents that my mother was ill; she was having daily high fever which did not seem to respond to any line of treatment. And doctors at Patna where my parents lived, had suggested that she be taken to Kolkata. My son decided to go to Patna and inspect things first hand and quickly, it became evident that he would have to accompany my mother to Kolkata; his Japan plans were shelved. Matters reached a head when my mother was diagnosed with Cancer. My nephew, a doctor, had taken a lead in oganizing matters but he was also hampered by my absence. In our country, a serious illness needs an organizer of matters from the family; she or he would keep track of expenses, arrange for funds when required and if feasible too, provide whatever advice possible to the remaining family members. Clearly I was needed there.

There was a problem; under the conditions of my appointment, any Visiting Foreign Professor in a National Univerity in Japan could not leave Japan during the tenure of the appointment. I could terminate, of course, but there were heavy costs associated. I decided to consult my host Professor Kuroda, whom I had got to like quite a lot. He knew about the regulation and asked me to seek an appointment with the Dean. In the meanwhile, I had decided to quit, if necessary and had booked our tickets. I did not know the Dean and had not met him earlier.

The meeting with the Dean was a surprise; on hearing of my predicament, his first question was whether my father was still alive; I told him, he was; the next question was who usually looked after my father; I told him my mother usually did ; his immediate repsonse was that I should immediately proceed to India to look after my father when my mother was ill. He told me that the University will look after the procedure for seeking permission from the Ministry of Education. I was almost on the way out, when he asked me whether I had finished my teaching and had graded the examination scripts and submitted the grades. I had done so. And a final question, would I be able to return and complete my tenure. I could only say, I will try.

And I was permitted, just like that, to return and take up the challenge that the Grim Reaper had thrown. I have taught in so many places, under so many different regimes; sudden leave from academic institutions even if leave is due, is difficult; when no leave is due, it is impossible. I did ask Yoshimi Kuroda whether he had put in a word; he claimed he hardly knew the person and had just filled out a form when making my appointment with the Dean. So we were back in Kolkata and joined the battle. I think it was early July 1999 and within a day, my mother was operated upon. Particularly given the rapidity with which the disease moved in the case of my friend Kubo, I was mentally prepared for the worst news. But our efforts were successful and mother steadily improved and I made all arrangements possible for her help and also towards my father’s upkeep. Given my mother’s age, and the biopsy of the tissues removed during surgery, the oncologist did not recommend chemotherapy or radiation. My father did not like this that we should await the next move by the disease passively; he wanted that we pursue some line of treatment.

I was discussing my mother’s case with a senior colleague, who was a scientist and had retired from JNU and shifted to Kolkata; she was able to point me towards another biochemist, who was researching cancer cells and had been testing a substance, which she thought would inhibit the growth of the rogue cells. The scientist was located in Kolkata and was willing to take my mother on as a test case; this material would have to be taken by my mother as an oral medicine and reports of various kinds would have to be sent to the lab periodically, on the basis of which the dosage of the substance could be changed. Now someone had to actually collect the medicine on a monthly basis and have it sent to my mother in Patna. Mritunjoy Mohanty, a student from our department in JNU, was then employed in Kolkata and hearing of this logistical problem, stepped in and picked up the packet regularly for almost two years from the scientist and handed over the packet to my grandaunt, Indira who then sent it on to my parents in Patna; when he could not, an aunt, Oormi, thankfully stepped in. I am most grateful to these persons for their help in making the process work, without any problem, for over two years; after this period, the scientist decided that, that was enough. Even on hindsight, it seemed that I had made the best possible moves to counter the Grim Reaper and I was planning to return to Tsukuba well in time to pick up my assignment at Tsukuba. I must say that returning took a great act of faith that things would ultimately work out. There were many who argued that I was making a mistake in returning; that I should wait for the inevitable. My parents however, were very strong people and they favoured my returning to the job that I had left unfinished. In fact, my mother lived till 2011. I should also add that the Medical Council of India did not permit the use of this substance as a medicine for cancer; the evidence from my mother’s treatment was dismissed, since it did not establish matters, according to them. In this connection, at the end, I shall put in my two bits towards the chess game that unfolded on the screen of the Seventh Seal. As one can see, our moves are not quite like moves in chess. We continue with our narrative.

I returned to Tsukuba after a month and reported to my host; it seems he was proceeding on sabbatical and would not be around to close my tenure but he had made arrangements with an young Assistant Professor, Yoshikatsu Tatamitani, to take over the formal duties of the host. Now I knew Tatamitani quite well; he was a theorist and ten years ago, when I had visited Tsukuba, I had taught him! In any case we had one more month to go. I also enquired from Kuroda to find out whether my position had already been filled since if not, I would like an extension till the end of the year. On my way back I had approached the JNU and found out that the extension was feasible from their side. I was keen to prolong my stay at Tsukuba for many reasons; some were academic and the other, was the financial side of things. It turned out that this was feasible provided I agreed to teach in the short-term programme, where students went through an accelerated programme and lectures were held for longer hours and the course for which they wanted me was some applied micro-economics for senior level undergraduates, if I recollect. Anyway I agreed and thus my tenure was extended till December 31, 1999. Financially, this was a huge step. But Mr Reaper must have been overjoyed since it was now possible to take another swipe at me.

Let me in passing, comment about the facilities available to Professors in Japan; apart from salaries which are reasonably high (at comprable levels, US academic salaries are higher), there was a huge research grant, specially at National Universities which could be used for research and associated activities. Unfortunately, while Foreign Professors such as myself were paid salaries at par with Japanese faculty of comparable attainments and rank, the research grant was much smaller. For Japanese faculty at senior level, one activity which could be supported was the holding of meetings of small groups, including the research scholars of the particular professor and one or two other outside scholars who work in the area of interest; the purpose of the meeting was to invite the outside scholars to address the gathering over a couple of days. Questions were raised and lively discussions ensued and there was a good dinner at the end of the day. Kazuo Nishimura, at Kyoto had organised such a meeting for me where he asked me to address questions relating to Non-linear dynamics as I had encountered in my own researches. In fact this helped me to work out many things and complete a rough draft of a survey I was preparing at the request of Professor K L Krishna for their journal and I used that as a text for my lectures at the Kyoto seminar: there were four or five sessions each about a couple of hours spread over two days; and we were meeting at a small hotel in Kyoto, where each of us stayed for the night. So there were was no outside interference. The extension allowed me to complete what I had started working on. This concentrated effort in preparing for the talk was a big help in identifying problems and made a progress towards solving some of them.

Originally I was to have stayed till about the middle of September 1999 and leave thereafter as soon as my tenure was completed. However now, there were some additional few weeks of hectic teaching. Our personal plans also intervened; my wife’s nephew was getting married in the US and she had applied for a US visa in Tokyo to attend the marriage. This was done even before we had to rush back on account of my mother’s illness. So she decided to leave for the US for a fortnight’s stay leaving me to my own devices. My mother was doing well in India, my lectures were happening without any problems and I was making steady progress towards the completion of the survey that I had discussed above.

Tsukuba University, was so named because of Mt. Tsukuba, which was located to the north-east has two peaks, and Tsukuba meant twin peaks apparently. And beyond the mountain in the same direction, is Tokaimura i.e., the village named Tokai. Also to fix matters, my office on the 12th floor, in Tsukuba University, was small and had a window which overlooked a mammoth parking lot and looked across to Mt Tsukuba and beyond. All this will have a bearing on what is described below.

On September 30, 1999 I was in my office working on my computer when there was a knock and Tatamitani (my temporary host, you may recall) came in looking somewhat more serious than he usually did. He told me that the University was shutting down and had asked people to pay attention to directives on the radio, because of a serious nuclear accident in Tokaimura where the atmosphere had been exposed to radioactivity. If the aircurrents favoured it, the radioactive air would travel towards the University of Tsukuba and beyond and those in the path will suffer contamination. The extent, seriousness etc were still not known. I did not know what to do; Tatamitani was going to stay put in the department; his wife was in Tokyo; like me, he had no one at home. I looked out of the window, the parking lot was completely empty. There was not a single car in the lot. So I decided to stay put too since then I could have access to the radio bulletins via Tatamitani. I asked whether keeping the windows shut helped; apparently it did not. The entire problem surfaced around 1030 am ; since I had no lecture to give, the whole day was a blank. Basically, we were waiting for the contaminated air to engulf us.

Radiation was one thing that I did not know anything about; I was all alone in a country where the emergency messages on the radio, I could not follow. I was dependent on Tatamitani to translate messages for me. What if something happened to him?

I started getting calls from various people in the US.. my wife and my friends, all asking what was I doing. Incidentally, the cafes and restaurants in the University were all shut and we had been advised to stay indoors and away from windows. The only way I could be away from the window is if I moved out of my room. But then the corridors were all empty and no one was around. Better to stay inside my office, I thought.

Clearly the Grim Reaper had launched an attack unexpectedly and more importantly, there did not seem to be any way of countering this move. The whole day went like this in great anxiety and complete helplessness. Even now, thinking about the day leaves me panic stricken. Round about 5 pm, Tatamitani came in with a smile and told me that the emergency was over. Apparently, the contaminated air, being heavier than the normal air, sinks to the lowest strata; the air current would have to be strong and blowing in our direction to lift the contaminated air above the Tsukuba mountain and towards Tsukuba science city, where our University was located. Apparently the air was neither strong nor blowing in our direction and consequently the contaminated air stayed put. And consequently the shut-down enforced by the authorities had been lifted. Public transport had started operating and it was safe to venture out. Slightly later than usual, I returned home.

As we found out, the village of Tokai, to the north-east of where we were, had been the scene of two nuclear incidents; the first was in 1997 when there had been an explosion at the Power reactor and Nuclear Fuel Development Corporation radioactive waste bitumnisation facility. Several people had been exposed to radiation. We were unfortunate to be subjected to the second incident, described as a ‘criticality accident’ at a separate fuel reprocessing facility due to improper handling of liquid uranium fuel. The incident spanned approximately 20 hours, causing radiation exposure to some 600 workers and death of two. The report was to blame human error in handling. An enquiry in March 2000, was to cancel the plant’s credentials for handling nuclear wastes. So far as I was concerned, I lived through scary times. Were we affected at all? I think the jury is still out on that one given the large number of people who were later to develop illnesses of various types. Amongst nuclear disasters, there is a scale, (the International Nuclear Event Scale) where 7 is the worst like the one at Chernobyl; this was rated to be of level 4.

So we had eveaded the Grim Reaper yet again. We ran into yet another problem. Government of Japan, Ministry of Education requires that a Foreign Professor whose contract was upto December 31, as mine was, could leave Japan only on January 1. In my case, the twist was that this was December 31, 1999. And in November or early December 1999, no airlines was in a position to make bookings for January 1, 2000 or thereafter, since computers were just not accepting dates in 2000. There were dire predictions that the computers would crash on December 31, 1999 because of the turn of the century. Particularly given the huge volume of traffic during the New Year’s break, tickets had to bought well in advance. I was at the end of my tether; the trip had begun badly, with Yuji Kubo’s death. And there were one set of problems after another; now I was eager to get back. I approached the University once more, seeking advice. Once again, in the face of circumstances, I was advised to get the latest possible ticket on or before December 31; I aimed for Dcember 29 and received acknowledgement from the travel agent and the University accepted the arrangement. Nothing really happened at the turn of the century; computers did not crash as had been talked about. Flight schedules did not appear to have been disrupted. And we all went on more or less as before. I at least heaved a sigh of relief when I returned; the Grim Reaper seemed to have been held in abeyance. Surely, through serendipity, rather than design, I thought.

The piece has become long but I cannot restrain myself from commenting on a report on the Seventh Seal. There was something wrong with the depiction of the game of chess that Antonious Bloch was playing with the Grim Reaper. So much so, Bergman was blamed for no knowledge of the Game of Chess; that the rules being used were actually in use much later than when the Black Death affected Europe. Writing in the Empire, (posted on 11.07.2011, Ian Freer analyses the Game of Chess played), the post ends with the brash sentence: “Ingamar Bergman then, master filmmaker, doofus chessplayer.”

The critic surely misunderstands the contest between the Grim Reaper and Bloch; every one knows that any such contest will have only one outcome; Death will prevail; the question is whether some time can be bought by postponing the inevitable. Whether you call the game chess or something else is quite beside the point. A particular point that is picked up to show that Bergman did not play the game of chess was to point out that as the game progressed, more and more pieces were left on the board. One would expect that as a game of chess progresses one would have fewer pieces on board. Clearly it was not chess that was being depicted but it seems to me that chess was just a symbol of the contest that Bloch had engaged in. Interpreted in this manner, clearly more and more pieces are engaged in thwarting Death as the contest progresses. Whether Black wins or White wins is quite besides the point; as I said, we all know, Death will eventually prevail. The point is when up against the Grim Reaper, the essential question is whether one is able to buy time; some do and many are unable to do so. But clearly to dismiss Bergman even on matters relating to chess, is not proper.