"Dharma" begins in a bar in Bombay, India, called the Fisherman's Rest. The young narrator, who works for a software company, describes a thin, white-haired old man named Subramaniam, who is often to be seen at the bar. Subramaniam had been joint secretary of the Ministry of Defence, where he had worked for forty-one years, and was now retired. Ramani introduces the narrator to Subramaniam. Ramani is telling the group about an old house in the city that cannot be sold because people believe it is haunted. The narrator pours scorn on this idea and laments the fact that educated men and women can believe in such things. But then Subramaniam speaks up in a small, whispery voice and says he knew a man once who met a ghost. He then tells the story.

Subramaniam's story begins with fifty-year-old Major General Jago Antia, who is in...