Georgian writer Merab Ratishvili was born on May 16, 1959 in Georgia, c.Gori, in the family of teachers. By profession he is economist, financier, lawyer of international law. 

Till 2007 was president of "The International Organization for Economic Cooperation".

In 2004 He founded the National Association of Golf in Georgia. He is the author of several economic projects. He had an active social life.

October 26, 2007 he was arrested as an active supporter of the political opposition and sentenced to imprisonment for 9 years. During the period of detention, he created a website of political prisoners,  newspaper and website www.tribuna.ge where he published many critical letters and interviews against the ruling regime. Georgian and international human rights organizations have recognized him as a political prisoner, and asked for his release from illegal detention.

The Parliament of Georgia subsequently recognized Merab Ratishvili as apolitical prisoner and released him from his illegal confinement on January 13, 2013. On may 13, 2019, the Georgian court of appeal dismissed the charge and he was acquitted!

In prison he began his literary activity. In two years, he released three novels and a collection of poems and short stories. He founded the historical thriller genre in Georgian literature. There is practically no example in world literature of an author writing and publishing such a quantity of work from his prison cell. His books have become bestsellers and occupy the leading position in the rankings. Merab Ratishvili is a writer and member of Commonwealth of Literary Men of Russia who was nominated for the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2014 by The Union of Literatures of the Russian Federation. His novel White Lama has been longlisted for the prestigious International IMPAC Dublin Literary Awardin 2016.

"Georgian times" offers an extract from Merab ratishvili's novel "The White Lama", which was released in spring 2011. This work is written in Rustavi Prison N6 solitary cell N13 and It seemed like a prophecy of the present!

As in his other novels "Juga" and "Iliadi", you can read predictions about the economic and political process of development in the world. 

BOOK ONE

Chapter Eight

* * * * *

Niniko and Thomas often corresponded, and soon became good friends. As they were sensitive and impressionable young people they had been happy to discover that their ancestors had been friends, and this was having an impact on their own friendship too. 

Thomas invited Niniko on a summer vacation to England. He really wanted to meet her, introduce her to his family, show her his university and talk about her future education. After talking to her grandfather, Niniko invited Thomas to Georgia instead. She explained that this is how their ancestors had done it: first Thomas Blake Sr. had visited Georgia, then grandfather Giorgi had made a return visit. She added that if Thomas followed in his ancestor’s footsteps it would be easier for him to understand their friendship. 

She also wrote that thanks to his information they had found her great-great-grandfather, and she and Grandpa Lado were going to visit him in Tibet. This message inspired Thomas, and he immediately agreed to visit Georgia and then accompany them to Tibet if asked. This reply pleased Niniko very much.

In the middle of July Thomas departed from London, bound for Tbilisi via Vienna. He had to linger awhile in Vienna, and got acquainted with an American. He was much older than Thomas and appeared to be of German origin, although born in Argentina. He was heading for Tbilisi on a business trip under the auspices of an international health care organisation. 

They spent several hours together in the bar of Vienna airport. Though twice as old as Thomas, the man seemed a pleasant companion and also a big fan of alcohol. Consequently the inexperienced Thomas did some serious drinking, and the two men boarded the plane completely drunk. Thomas was the worse for it, but both then added several glasses of whisky on the plane, which made Thomas lose consciousness and fall asleep. 

He was woken up when they landed in Tbilisi. It was easy to imagine what condition this inexperienced young man was in by that time. He was still drunk, but he remembered that he wanted to surprise Niniko. He took his undershirt off in the airport lounge, pulled an old embroidered shirt out of his bag and put it on. Smoothing his hair with his hands, he staggered over to the exit.

Niniko and her uncle David were waiting there for him. They did not expect to see a foreigner in a Khevsurian shirt come through the passenger exit, obviously very tired from the journey and from drinking. Neither did anyone else there: everyone looked at him with an amazed smile and tried to find a video camera. 

Seeing his condition and the Khevsurian shirt, Niniko emerged from the mass of waiting people and shouted with a laugh: “Thomas, I’m here!”

Thomas really made an impression on his hosts with his clothes. They had belonged to Thomas Blake Sr., and been given to him by Giorgi about 80 years ago. The clothes were shabby enough to resemble a museum exhibit, and Thomas himself was very similar in appearance to Thomas Blake Sr.

This first meeting was very warm, and his hosts treated Thomas’s state with understanding. He was taken to his room at the Metekhi Palace hotel, and because it was already late they agreed to meet him again the next day at one o’clock. 

Thomas’s American companion was in the same hotel, in fact in the next room. He wasn’t going to miss such an opportunity, so as soon as Niniko and David had left the hotel he dragged Thomas to the bar on the top floor.

The next day Niniko and her uncle waited for their guest for a long time, but he didn’t appear. He didn’t even answer the phone. They could only wait, they couldn’t go back home without him. 

In the hotel lobby Niniko saw Thomas’s companion, with traces of the night’s booze on his face. She approached him without feeling shy and asked whether he knew where Thomas was. The American replied coolly that he didn’t know anything and hadn’t seen Thomas since the previous night. Niniko felt there was something wrong, and asked the hotel administrator to enter his room and find out what had happened to him. The anxious administrator came out of his room saying he was unconscious, and called an ambulance.

Thomas was discharged from the clinic where David worked as a deputy of the head doctor only three days later. Everyone then left for Barisakho. Thomas still felt weak and unwell, but he was more worried about having arrived in such a state and having been so improvident that things had turned out like this. He felt awkward about it, and apologised to Niniko and David for what had happened to him and causing them so much trouble. He said that he had never drunk so much before and couldn’t explain why he had behaved like that. 

The American wasn’t on the scene now, because he was to spend the whole week in Khevsureti. His condition gradually improved, and it seemed he had forgotten about everything.  When reminded of that unpleasant adventure, he always joked: “It seems that rescuing Thomas Blakes is the Likokeli tradition.” 

By chance, he found his American companion’s card in his pocket. As far as he could remember, he had given him this at Vienna Airport. With a bowed head, Thomas sat in the yard for a long time, looking at this business card and trying to remember their strange conversation. He remembered some of it, but most of it was erased from his memory as the alcohol had affected him. He vaguely recalled, however, that the American had told him some very strange and unpleasant things.

Niniko came out into the yard. Seeing Thomas with his head bowed, she asked:

“Why are you sad?”

Thomas smiled confusedly.

“I am trying to remember the unpleasant adventure and that person...”

“Well, is it working?” she asked, laughing.

“Not completely. He told me very strange stories, which keep popping up in my head.”

“Do you remember his name?” Niniko asked cheerfully.

Thomas handed her the business card. It said: 

“Edward May, Doctor. International Health Care Organisation, Director of Special Programmes for Eastern Europe and the Caucasus”.

“What does it mean – special programmes?” Niniko asked.

“I think he works on vaccination programmes.”

“I do not know anything about such matters, but if you want I can study them,” Niniko said cheerfully, making Thomas laugh.

“If he is a doctor, doesn’t he know that it’s harmful to drink so much?” Niniko asked. “Was his the behaviour of a doctor?” 

“Well I don’t know whether he is a good doctor or not, but he drank a lot, that I know. I can’t remember what he told me in the hotel, I was already very drunk, and I couldn’t drink any more either but I couldn’t get away from him. Our meeting and conversation made me remember many troubles,” Thomas said sincerely, “and it seemed he hated the whole world. Here he was in Vienna swearing and slinging mud at everyone. While we sat at the bar he told me such hair-raising things. He was more drunk than me at that point, as he had flown from New York and probably drunk all the way.”

“What hair-raising things did he tell you?”

“I remember some of the things he told me about himself. He said that his family had been forced to emigrate. He said that he had been born in Buenos Aires, in a suburb called Saint Martin, which was like a new Bavaria. After World War II a big German colony had lived there. He told me that what Hitler hadn’t been able to achieve, the establishment of a new world order and the breeding of an Aryan race, this generation should achieve, and English people should also be part of the new race because Germans alone were not numerous enough. He said that if the English and Americans had supported Hitler during his rule the world would be completely different today and so much time wouldn’t have been lost.”

“I really don’t understand what that man was talking about,” Niniko said sincerely.

“Frankly speaking, I don’t understand it either. Talking about Hitler nowadays? I felt like I was at the cinema. I think this man is a neo-Nazi, and hates the whole world because his parents lost their homeland long ago.”

“What is preventing them returning home?” Niniko asked.

“Probably, their past.”  

“How can he be an American, if he was born in Buenos Aires?”

“He said that in the sixties his father was transferred to a biochemical institute in the United States, apparently Fort Dietrich, where he grew up. His father had been a great scientist, which is why he was sent there. He said that both his grandfathers, those on both his mother’s and father’s side, had been scientists who had worked for some organisation called Ahnenerbe. Those who had been able to get out of Germany had continued their work in Argentina. 

“He often mentioned this Ahnenerbe. He said that all the successes achieved by that organisation are being enjoyed by Americans today.”

“Why are you tormenting yourself with all this? Let’s go and have something to eat!” Niniko told her guest, laughing.

“No, I have to remember what he said to me in the hotel.”

“Let’s have dinner, and if you want, I will help you remember,” she said, grabbing his hand to lift him up.

“How?” asked Thomas, surprised.

“You will see!”

Niniko and Thomas, legs folded, were sitting opposite each other on a carpet with their eyes closed. Niniko was asking questions and Thomas was replying slowly, in fragments. Niniko had woken Thomas’s subconscious through telepathic communication and activated his telepathic field. When Thomas had got drunk during the conversation in the bar his active memory hadn’t perceived anything, but his subconscious had absorbed all the information like a sponge. The conversation with Edward May was perfectly preserved in the depths of his memory. 

After a few questions, his subconscious opened the ‘file’ he had been looking for all these days but couldn’t find. Through telepathic communication Niniko uncovered their whole conversation.

They could see that Edward had one hand on Thomas’s shoulder. Thomas was sitting on the corner of a couch with his head down, barely responding or raising his head. He was looking around the hall with glazed eyes, listening to Edward’s comments, which he perceived as a hum, he could only distinguish a few phrases clearly. 

Edward was speaking to him in the tone of a close friend and teacher.

“My boy, you are a son of the Aryan race, a mission was predetermined in your birth as well as mine. Those who betrayed us sixty years ago have returned to reverse the exaltation of our super race, but this time we will act more flexibly and courageously, and our victory will be inevitable. This will happen in the nearest future, as we have everything necessary to achieve it, everything is ready. The main thing is to believe in our power, future and unity.” 

Thomas was nodding out of inertia. The hand on his shoulder and the conversation were a burden, but nevertheless he was forced to listen to this man, and felt himself a victim. 

The first impression he had gained at Vienna airport – that this was an interesting person and companion – had led him into a trap that he couldn’t get out of. Thomas no longer had the strength to resist him, get up and leave.

That first impression again dominated as he sat bewitched next to Edward, mechanically answering his questions or agreeing with him. Edward, in growing excitement, was purposefully and aggressively brainwashing him. He knew that the young man’s intellect would sow thoughts which would bear fruit in the future. 

Edward’s main aim was to awaken racist emotions in the young man. He believed that all Aryans inherited such feelings genetically, and that if awoken this worm would run through the entire mind, bypass every corner of it and make people do what they had to do. After a while this young man would probably think for himself that he should do whatever Edward now wanted him to do.

“What do you think our interest is here, Thomas?” he asked. Straight away he answered himself: “That which we couldn’t achieve with tanks and planes, we’ll achieve with this.” He imitated the action of a syringe with his fingers.

“This...  this is...  and how will we achieve it?” Thomas uttered. 

Edward laughed haughtily.

“Thomas, we have so many resources for this purpose... If our Adolf had had all this, our distressed earth would now be cleared of these dirty crowds. After all, they were only put on earth to contaminate it. No one has taken the responsibility of removing them from us. Our duty is to accomplish what our fathers and grandfathers couldn’t because they didn’t have time. They prevented each other, because these dirty tribes were able to divide us temporarily, but only temporarily. My father devoted all his life to the cause, and achieved what he wanted when he created the HIV virus, which has done what the Third Reich sought to do. You can see for yourself how fast AIDS has spread in the world.” 

He removed his hand from Thomas’s shoulder, stood up straight and leaned back a little. Thomas felt him remove his hand and tried to raise his head.

“This is our answer. Do you think millions of our pure Aryan men died in vain, so that those dirty crowds could live freely on the earth which belongs to us? Look what is happening in Europe: Hindus, Chinese, Arabs, Africans and Turks have invaded our Holy Land. They will receive the appropriate response – and are already receiving it!”

Thomas raised his head, and with glazed, senseless eyes looked at his companion. He sometimes caught the emotional content of what Edward was saying to him, but not its actual meaning. However, his instinct still suggested to him that it would be better to agree.

In the almost empty hotel bar only two small tables were occupied, at which four foreigners were sitting with “streetwalkers”. Such an audience was not interested in Edward, nor he in them, therefore he gave his full attention to his prey.

“Are you going to travel frequently, my boy? Then stock yourself up with a large number of condoms and antiseptic preparations, as many as you can.”

Thomas again raised his head, but this time shook it in disagreement.

“Yes, yes, Thomas, they will have so many epidemics here, more than they have had throughout their existence. This is Stalin’s homeland. Do you know who Stalin was?” Thomas nodded. “Here are his genetic relatives, those who raised up our destroyer, who sacrificed so many Aryans. Their hands are coated in our blood. But we have not surrendered and we have made a present for them. Do you know what hepatitis is?” Thomas shook his head. “It kills people slowly, every third or fourth person will get sick, and they will constantly depend on us. And do you know what tuberculosis is?” Again Thomas shook his head. “Every third or fourth person will be infected with it. 

“This is our new testing ground, after Africa. These are the ancestral lands of our Aryan race, from which we were driven by the Gondwana crowds who occupied it. The Ahnenerbe scientists had all the evidence that this land belongs to us. Now it is our turn, and our obligation, to clear these people out of the Caucasus. You had better not touch women! Do you hear me?” Excited, Edward was almost shouting. 

Thomas straightened up, as if he had got sober. He didn’t want to show that he hadn’t been capable and hadn’t understood the sense of the conversation, so he gave a conspiratorial nod.

“Don’t touch the women! Got it? After we start the vaccinations, every second man or woman will be infected with some type of disease. So many unexpected surprises are waiting for them, which they will never have dreamed of. The Russians gave us a perfect gift when they left this place, a ready infrastructure. We will prepare these cocktails right here, in a biological laboratory near Tbilisi. A lot of insects and reptiles will be bred here, a lot of infections and epidemics will appear, so they will be forced to flee this country. Those who survive and stay here will serve us. 

“The plan of our Adolf remains in force, and has never been so relevant as today. Only our strategy has changed. Will you join us, my boy?” Thomas raised his head and looked at him vacantly. “Will you be with us?!” Edward asked again for emphasis. 

Thomas was caught up in the moment, and nodded.

“Weeee... will all be together!” he belched. Then he covered his mouth with his hand.

“I hope in you, my boy. We are called to serve each other. If you stay here, you will help us here. If you don’t, you will receive a task in Europe!” He took a glass of whisky and clinked glasses with Thomas, drinking it and indicating to Thomas that he should do the same. Thomas drank in silence, then suddenly lay down on his side and fell asleep.

After the hypnotic session Niniko and Thomas remained immersed in thought. Neither of them, at their age and psychological state, had been ready to listen to such an unpleasant conversation, which had affected them very much. Thomas was discomfited at having become an involuntary accomplice of that man by being part of such a conversation, and this was visible both on his face and in his tone, but Niniko calmed him down.