Idriss

Idriss is an elderly teacher living in Varanasi whose influence reaches the story through the people who remember him. He taught Abdel Khader Khan the philosophy Abdel Khader Khan called Resolution theory, and their bond was described as almost father and son; when Khaled Ansari disappears, Idriss becomes a possible destination in the search for him.

Identity and Presence

Idriss lives and teaches in Varanasi. By the time he is recalled, he is very old, but he has continued teaching there. The account places him in a cave with a giant Buddha statue, where Karla met him alongside Abdel Khader Khan. Idriss is not introduced through a present-day encounter: his character is assembled from recollections and from the lasting influence attributed to his teaching.

Teaching and Intellectual Legacy

Abdel Khader Khan named his philosophy of life Resolution theory, but Karla says Idriss gave the philosophy that name and taught Abdel Khader Khan what he knew of it. Its central idea, as the conversation identifies it, is that the universe moves toward complexity. Lin had discussed that idea at length with Abdel Khader Khan, yet had never heard the name Idriss or the theory’s name from him. The contrast makes Idriss’s intellectual influence clear while also marking a significant gap in what Lin knew about his teacher and mentor.

Relationships and Recollection

Karla met Idriss at the beginning of her time in India, after she broke down on a plane bound for Singapore. Abdel Khader Khan was on the same plane, put an arm around her, and heard her disclose everything. Karla recalls that the next thing she knew, she was in the cave with the giant Buddha and Idriss. The episode connects Idriss to a moment when Abdel Khader Khan offered her care, although the account does not explain the intervening journey in detail.

Karla says Abdel Khader Khan loved Idriss like a father and once called him the teacher of all teachers. He had wanted to retire near Varanasi and live close to Idriss. These details present their relationship not merely as a transfer of ideas but as an enduring attachment that shaped Abdel Khader Khan’s sense of a future beyond his life in Bombay.

A Possible Destination

Khaled Ansari had been fascinated by Idriss and obsessed with the thought of meeting him; he used to ask Karla about him. When Khaled goes missing, Karla suspects he may be heading to Varanasi to seek out Idriss, or may already have arrived. Her belief is explicitly a starting hypothesis rather than confirmation, but it gives Idriss a new narrative significance: the absent teacher may be the place where Khaled’s trail can be resumed.