The Hungry Tide A.Ghosh free essay sample

Indian, 42 years old; translator; knows 6 languages; at around 10 was sent to Lusibari to be â€Å"rusticated† when speaking back to the teacher; unmarried; lives in New Deli; runs a bureau of translators; Piyali Roy: Indian by descent; does not speak Bengali; from Seattle but born in Kolkata, left when 1 year old; cetologist; has an uncle in Kolkata (big man in government); late 20s; her mother suffered from cervical cancer; Nilima Bose: Mashima â€Å"aunt†; 76 years old; Kanai’s aunt, mother’s sister; founded the hospital in Lusibari, heads the organization Badabon Trust; childless; Nirmal Bose: Saar – â€Å"Sir†; headmaster of a school in Lusibari; Kanai’s uncle, Nilima’s husband; dead; died in 1979 in July, the year he wrote the notebook; in youth was in love with the idea of a revolution, started despising what Nilima did. Nirmal stopped writing in Lusibari. Horen Naskor: fisherman; gives a boat ride to Nilima, Nirmal and Kanai when he comes to Lusibari the first time; has 3 children; marries at the age of 14; Kusum: girl form Horen’s village, 15 years old was put in care of Women’s Union in Lusibari; runs off and on return is killed; has a tooth chipped, short hair when Kanai first meets her (suffered from typhoid); doesn’t know English; from island of Sajtela; father died foraging for firewood; the man that â€Å"employed† her mother in Calcutta wanted to sell Kusum but Horen interfered; Mej-da: owner of the launch Piya hires; does not speak English; Guard: assigned to Piya for her survey; does not speak English; Moyna Mandol: works for Nilima; married Kusum’s son, Fokir; is a trainee in the union for many years, started out as a barefoot nurse. She wanted to study but her family decided to wed her off to Fokir, who could neither read nor write. She doesn’t’ speak English. She wants Tutul to have an education, Fokir is against it. Fokir (Fokirchand) Mandol: Kusum’s son; Moyna’s husband; is brought up by Horen; he doesn’t lie it in Lusibari; Tutul Mandol: Moyna’s and Fokir’s son; child of about 5; Dilip: man who wanted to sell Kusum; Morichjhapi incident: 1978 the refugees from Bangladesh came to the island of Morichjhapi, a reserve for tiger conservation. They had come to India after Partition. Are exploited both by Hindus and by Muslims (Dalits now, Harijans before). Government moved the refugees to Dandakaranya, far from Bengal – â€Å"resettlement†, in reality was a prison, everyone was forbidden to leave. They did not speak the local language, locals treat them as intruders. In 1978 they broke out out and came to Morichjhapi. In West Bengal a Left Front ministry took power and the refugees hoped that there would be no opposition from the government. In mid-May of 1979 there was the final confrontation. Chapter 1: The Tide Country November. Dhakuria a locality in the city of  Kolkata   /k? l? k? t? /  (previously, ‘Calcutta: The presiding deity is Kali. In earlier days, the areas around the temple was known as Kali Ghat, which was corrupted by the British as they had difficulty in pronouncing. In the meantime Calcutta grow into a big metropolis and its original name, Kali Ghat was restored, but in English it came to be called as Kolkatta). Take the train to Canning, to Sundarbans – the beautiful forest, named in reference to a tree or to a tide bhati. Kanai notices Piya on the platform. Chapter 2: An Invitation Piya pours tea on Kanai’s pages. She noticed him already on the platform. Piya goes to do a survey of the marine mammals in Sundarbans. Kanai goes to visit his aunt in Lusibari (â€Å"Lucy’s House† from English) to see the papers that uncle had left for him. Kanai invites Piya to come to Lusibari. Chapter 3: Canning Kanai thinks of Piya as a one-night-stand. Remembers how aunt called him and asked to come. Nilima meets Kanai at the station. Matla – river, shallow. (Marichjhapi massacre  refers to the forcible eviction of  Bengali Hindu  refugees and their subsequent death by starvation, exhaustion and police firing in the period between January to June, 1979. The Hindu refugees who had fled  East Pakistan  in the sixties, had settled in  Dandakaranya. In the seventies, the  Left Front  leaders launched a campaign for the return of the  Bengali Hindu  refugees to their native land. By April, 1978, around 30,000  Bengali Hindu  refugees had settled in the island of  Marichjhapi  in the  Sundarbans. The  Left Frontgovernment imposed economic sanctions on  Marichjhapi  and cordoned off the island with police. When the inhabitants tried to swim across to other islands, they were shot dead. Out of the 14,388 families that had settled in the island 4,128 died of starvation, exhaustion and police firing. ) Uncle was saying: â€Å"Matla will rise! † when they found him in Canning. Bon Bibi – the goddess of the forest. Remembers meeting Horen and hearing of Kusum for the first time. Chapter 4: The Launch Piya obtains the permission t do her survey. Has a guard assigned for the survey. Piya hires Mej-da’s launch. Is preoccupied for the fact to be alone with the guard and Mej-da on the launch. Chapter 5: Lusibari Kanai arrives to Lusibari (island, main village has the same name). Lucy Hamilton, was coming to see the house when her ship capsized; house built by her uncle, Sir Daniel MacKinnon Hamilton, the school was named after him. Chapter 6: The Fall Piya meets the fisherman on the boat. The guard calls him a poacher and takes away his money. Piya tries to give the man her money and falls into the river. Chapter 7: S’Daniel Sir Daniel was called S’Daniel after he became a knight; Scottish; Nirmal tells Kanai the story of Sir Daniel Hamillton who had a dream of creating a new country where everybody would be equal. Chapter 8: Snell’s Window Snell’s window is a clear opening on the surface of the water looking from under it. The fisherman saves drowning Piya and now willing to return to the launch she asks him to take her to Lusibari to Mashima. Chapter 9: The Trust 1947 partition of the subcontinent 1971 Bangladesh war Kanai upon arrival to Lusibari finds out that Moyna’s husband, Fokir, and son, Tutul, went missing. Chapter 10: Fokir Piya finds out fisherman’s name, Fokir, gives him money for the ride but he accepts only a small amount. Chapter 11: The Letter Kanai finds Nirmal’s pack addressed to him and inside a notebook, a narration in form of an extended letter. Morichjhapi – paper-island. Chapter 12: The Boat Piya and Fokir search for a place to pass the night. Memories about binoculars and studies at the university. Chapter 13: Nirmal and Nilima Nirmal taught English literature in Calcutta. Nilima was his student. He was a leftist, Nilima’s family disapproves. They move to Lusibari in 1950 (a year after being married). 1948 policy of armed struggle in Calcutta Badabon: Bengali â€Å"mangrove† / Arabic â€Å"desert† + Sanscrit â€Å"forest† Chapter 14: At Anchor Piya sees other boats but Fokir decides to anchor in another place and she is happy about that. They wash and prepare for the night. Chapter 15: Kusum Kanai is eavesdropping on the women at the Women’s Union and Kusum is the only one to see him. Next days Kusum speaks to him first and startles him with a grasshopper in her mouth. Chapter 16: Words Fokir cooks crabs, they smell like mother’s cooking, but Piya refuses to eat them having suffered from digestion problems in the past. Fakir sings as they prepare to sleep. Chapter 17: Glory of Bon Bibi Glory of Bon Bibi was a performance by travelling actors. Kusum wanted to go to the city with Kanai. Opening scene in the city of Arabia, setting was Medina. Bon Bibi was one of the twins who set out into the land of the tides on the calling of archangel Gabriel. They defeated Dokkhin Rai in a battle and Bon Bibi was merciful leaving half of the country to be a wilderness for Dokkhin Rai and his demon hordes. On the edges of the tide country lived a man named Dhona who had a fleet of 7 ships to make fortune in the jungle. His crew lacked one man and he took Dukhey, â€Å"sorrowful†, his mother had told him to call for Bon Bibi when he is in trouble. They arrived to an island not knowing it was the territory of Dokkhin Rai who proposed a deal to Dhona – give him the boy and he will give him riches (honey and wax). They boy was tricked into stepping ashore by Dhona and was attacked by a tiger, Dokkhin Rai in disguise. The boy called for Bon Bibi and she saved him and cured him, and sengt him home with homey. Kusum cries during the performance and runs off as Kanai goes after her. She tells him that she also had called Bon Bibi when her father died but she did not come. Horen interrupted them saying that Dilip is looking for her and they need to run away. Chapter 18: Stirring Piya first hears and then the Irrawadi dolphin in the foggy morning. Chapter 19: Moricjhapi Nilima went down with cold the next day Kanai had arrived. Kusum comes to Nilima dressed in widow’s dress (all in white) with a 4-5 year old son, Fokir. Fokir’s father was dead. Kusum lived in Morichjhapi, came to Lusibari to persuade Nilima to send medical help to Morichjhapi refugees. Nilima refused, is afraid of the government. Kusum dies in a massacre soon after. Chapter 20: An Epiphany Dolphins Orcaella – 2 types, river and saltwater, odd behavior. Piya finds a project for life. Chapter 21: Moyna Nilima copes with Nirmal’s death immersing herself into work. Kanai meets Moyna. Kanai finds out about nylon nets for tiger prawn fishing and that Nilima wanted them banned. Chapter 22: Crabs Piya maps the territory while Fokir catches crabs. Chapter 23: Travels Bernise’s travels – a Jesuit missionary of the 17th century. Nirmal travels to another school and asks Horen to take him there on his boat. Chapter 24: Garjontola Garjontola is an abandoned village. Piya decides to call the pool in the river after it. They get off the boat and Fokir and Tutul take her to a shrine of a woman+man and a tiger crouching in between them. They prey. Piya does not understand if they are Muslim. When they come back to the boat they see a tiger paw print. Chatper 25: A Disturbance Kanai and Moyna meet in the evening and hear the tiger. Chapter 26: Listening Night, Piya and Fokir in the boat. Dolphins, mom and the calf. Chapter 27: Blown Ashore Horen and Nirmal are caught in the storm on their way back to Lusibari and go ashore on Morichjhapi. Nirmal meets Kusum. Kusum went to find her mother. At the station met Rajen (the lame) and stayed at his shack. Her mother was working in a brothel in a mining city Dhanbad. Rajen is also from the Tide Country. He marries Kusum. Ma’(mother) dies 2 months after that. Rajen falls under a train. Kusum joins the refugee movement – her people from Bengal. Chapter 28: A Hunt Piya follows the dolphins, see crocodiles. Chapter 29: Dreams: Nirmal decides to help people in Morichjhapi, but a leader of the ward where Kusum lives was disappointed when he found out that Nirmal is a simple school teacher. He allowed him, though, to teach if he manages to find someone to teach. (teach to dream). Chapter 30: Pursued Memory Horen, Kusum, Fokir and Nirmal arrive to Garjontola and go to the shrine. Horen talks about the fear of tigers and whisers a prayer to keep them away. When they arrive to the shrine he reads a prayer that is pronounced in Arabic. This surprises Nirmal and Horen tells him that it was pronounced by his father, in fact, he has the book where this rayer s written down. He gives it to Nirmal and they head back. When they arrive back to Morichjhapi, Horen wants to take Fokir away from there into safety, because they know that something is about to happen. Intermediaries Nilima comes to Piya and they have a talk, she asks her why she dowsn’t speak Bangla – her father didn’t want her to learn it (their people have eyes fixed to home) and Nilima warns Piya about Kanai, â€Å"fast† man. Besieged Nirmal hears rumors that Morichjhapi has been sorounded by police the next days he comes back from Garjontola. He decides to go there. From a boat Nirmal watches how the settlers try to get back to the island on their boat but the police don’t let them, and then the police boat hits their boat and they all end up in the water. Words Moyna asks Kanai to speak to both Piya and Fokir, Kanai doesn’t understand that Piya could chose Fokir over him. He tries to provoke Moyna to say that she herself, if she could have, would have chosen him, Kanai. Crimes Nirmal finaly managed to go to Morichjhapi and he found Kusum and Fokir starving. The siege was called off but there was still police patrolling the island. Leaving Lusibari Kanai and Piya see that Fokir had caught a rai and gave its tail to Tutul. But Moyna came and threw the tail away angry, because he had to take their son to school. Launches name is Megha. Kanai tells Piya she has nothing in common with Fokir, she gets hurt. An Interruption Kanai asks Horen if he knows anything about the notebook, Horen tells him that he had it for the safekeeping but lost it, and then when he found it again he asked Moyna to take it to the study. Megha’s motor dies. Alive Nirmal overhears Nilima and the doctor talking about Morichjhapi and decides to escape and go there. Nirmal and Horen manage to convince Kusum to let them take Fokir to safety but Nirmal decides to stay (medicine that awaits him at home). Nirmal finished writing his notebook. The assault began the next day. Kanai asks Horen if Nirmal loved Kusum, no answer. A Post Office on Sunday Kanai tells the sotry of Canning to Piya. Matla – mad in Bangla. A Killing A tiger was killed in the village where Horen’s relatives live. Piya tried to stop it but Kanai and Fokir didn’t let her do anything. Interrogations Piya apologizes to Kanai, she tells him that he was right when he said that she and Fokir did not have anything in common. Mr. Sloane Piya tells Kanai about the first time she met a river dolphin, Mr. Sloane. She asks Fokir about the dolphins, and he tells her that he has seen a dream about his mother where she sks him to bring Tutul to Garjontola. Kratie Amitav Ghosh rose to eminence as a contemporary Indian English novelist with the publication of his second novel The Shadow Lines, winner of The Sahitya Academy Award. His popular novel The Hungry Tide, which won the Hutch Crossword Award in 2004 and was adjudged the best work in English fiction, is a wonderful piece of fiction that extensively deals with the local rhythms of contemporary Indian life as lived in the remote rural areas cut off from the hustle bustle of city life. Kanai Dutt, a Delhi based translator and Piya, an American biologist of Indian origin, come close to the rural life of the tide country through Neelima who has been running a hospital in a village named Lusibari since her husbands death. On being diagnosed with a fatal disease, Neelimas husband, Nirmal Bose, a retired school headmaster, shifted from Calcutta to Lusibari with his wife for availing of the benefit of pollution free environment of Sunderbans spread between the sea and plains of Bengal on the easternmost coast of India. After Nirmals death, Neelima is left alone in Lusibari with Kanai Dutt as her only close relative on whom she can rely during difficulty. The story of the novel revolves around the tide country that includes a couple of villages such as Lusibari, Garjontola, Canning, Gosaba, Satjelia, Morichjhapi and Emilybari. These villages, off and on, undergo the threat of inundation. As these villages remain surrounded by the seawater throughout the year, they are known as islands of the tide country. About these islands, Kanai says: Interposed between the sea and plains of Bengal, lies an immense archipelago of islands. But that is what it is: an archipelago stretching for almost three hundred kilometers from the Hooghly River in West Bengal to the shores of the Meghna in Bangladesh. (P. 7) Canning is the first village of the tide country to have found mention in the novel as the name of a chapter. As is true of all villages, Canning is prone to unhygienic conditions. The area near the Canning Railway Station is most polluted. The passengers from abroad in particular feel uncomfortable with the stench emanating from the filth and dirt lying on the railway track. Expressing his anguish at this unhygienic atmosphere of Canning Railway Station, Kanai Dutt ruefully says: It was late November and the weather was crisp and cool with a gentle breeze and honeyed sunlight. Yet the station had a look of bleak, downtrodden fatigue like one of those grassless city parks where the soil has been worn thin by the pressure of hurrying feet: the tracks glistened under slicks of shit, urine and refuse and the platform looked as if it has been pounded into the earth by the sheer weight of the traffic that passed over it. (P. 18) The market place of Canning is not a place that has anything of attraction for a man like Kanai who considers his stay in a village a kind of severe punishment due to unhygienic conditions. The gloomy look of the bazaar of Canning drives him to observe: The bazaars of Canning were a jumble of narrow lanes, cramped shops and mildewed houses. The only buildings of any note were the cinema halls: immense in their ungainly solidity, they sat upon the town like sound bags as though to prevent it from being washed away: (P. 25) Deep in the interior of Canning bazaar is situated the Forest Departmentsoffice. Piya visits this office to seek guidance of the forest staff in her research on dolphins. With the help of the forest guards of Canning, Piya conducts the survey of Irrawady river so as to sight the dolphins. The inhabitants of this village depend on boating amp; fishing for their livelihood. Both men and women engage themselves together in daily activities and spend their time amidst mud and water. Neelima was astonished to see- The women had hitched up their saris and the men were rolling up their lungis and trousers. On stepping off the plank, there was a long drawn out moment when each passenger sank slowly into the mud, like a spoon disappearing into a bowl of very thick dal; only when they were in upto their hips did their descent end and their forward movement begin. With their legs hidden from sight, all that was visible of their struggles was the twisting of their upper bodies. (P. 26) Lusibari is the farthest of the inhabited islands of the tide country. As for the surroundings of Lusibari, the novelist remarks: Lusibari was about two kilometers long from end to end, and was shaped somewhat like a conch shell. It was the most southerly of the inhabited islands of the tide country in fifty kilometers of mangrove that separated it from the open sea, there was no other settlement to be found. Although there were many other islands nearby, Lusibari was cut off from these by four encircling rivers. (P. 38) Lusibari was named by Sir Daniel Hamilton, a Scotsman, after his niece, Lucy. After leaving his native land to seek his fortune in India, Sir Daniel Hamilton came to Calcutta, joined Mackinnon and Macknezee Shipping Company and as a result of his hard labour shortly became the head of the company and master of an immense fortune, one of the richest men in India. Having an immense wealth at his command, Sir Daniel Hamilton purchased from the British government ten thousand acres of land surrounding Lusibari and decided to develop this village as a model for all of India, a new kind of country. He wanted to build a place where no one would exploit anyone and people would live together without petty social distinctions and differences. He dreamed of a place where men and women could be farmers in the morning, poets in the afternoon and carpenters in the evening. (P. 56) But for reasons unknown, Lusibari is still a backward place which, for Kanai, is a rat eaten island where there is nothing, no electricity, no roads, nothing. Like thousands of other villages of Bengal, this village is a tightly packed settlement of palm thatched huts and bamboo walled stalls and shacks. The village is rich in natural beauty but suffers from lack of means of transportation. Sir Daniel Hamiltons contribution to the development of this village is unforgettable. It is due to his efforts that there is a good market and grand school building which distinguish Lusibari from other villages. With regard to the infrastructural richness of Lusibari, the novelist observes: At the centre of the village was a maidan, an open space not quite geometrical enough to be termed a square. At one end of this ragged-edged maiden was a market place, a jumble of stalls, that lay unused through most of the week, coming alive only on Saturdays, which was the weekly market day. At the other end of maidan, dominating the village, stood a school. This was the building that was chiefly responsible for endowing the village with an element of visual surprise. Although not large, it loomed like a cathedral over the shacks, huts and shanties that surrounded it. The rooms were large and airy, with tall shuttered windows. Not far from the school lay a compound cut off from public view by a screen of trees. The house that occupied the centre of the compound was much smaller and less visible than the school. Yet its appearance was, if anything, even more arresting. Built entirely of wood, it stood on a two meter tall trestle of stilts, as if to suggest it belonged more in the Himalayas than in the tide country. In front there was a lily covered pond, skirted by a pathway of mossy bricks. Although that compound was situated in the centre of the settlement, there were few other dwellings nearby: it was clear at a glance that the area around the compound was among the most heavily trafficked in the whole island. Clusters of huts, houses, stalls, sweetshops and the like had grown up around the compound. (P. 39-40) Not very far from Lusibari is Satjelia, a village where Horen and Kusum, who play key roles in the novel as rustic characters, were born. As is the norm, the boys and girls of this village are tied in nuptial knots before they reach the age of fifteen. The girls in particular, if remain unmarried after this age, have to bear the brutality of the rouges. To protect them from being raped or kidnapped, they are put into the care of Womens Union. About this cultural pollution characterizing the life of Satjelia, Neelima tells Kanai: Horen was a fisherman, and he lived on an island called Satjelia, not far from Lusibari. He was younger than he looked, probably not yet twenty, but like many other tide country boys, he had been married ff early at the age of fourteen in his case. This was why he was already a father of three while still in his teens. As for Kusum, she was a girl from his village, a fifteen year old, whom he has put into the care of the Womens Union in Lusibari. Her father has died while foraging for firewood and her mother, without other means of support, had been forced to look for a job in the city. It was not safe for her on her own. All kinds of people tried to take advantage of her. Someone was even trying to sell her off. If Horen hadnt rescued her, who knows what might have happened? She might have been forced to lose herself respect and honour; it happened often enough to poor girls whore caught in that kind of situation (P. 31). Garjontola is an inaccessible small settlement, deep in the jungles of the tide country. Kusums father built a shrine here as a tribute to the presiding deity, Bon Bibi. It is in the tidal pool of this village that Piya realizes her dream of sighting the dolphins. This village is called Garjontola because of the garjon tree which is grown in abundance here. On being asked about her association with this village, Kusum tells Nirmal; It happened long, long ago before I was born; fishing alone, my father was caught in a storm. This wind raged like a fiend and tore apart his boat; his hands fell on a log and somehow he stayed afloat. Swept by the current; he came to Garjontola; climbing a tree, he tied himself with his gamchha. Attached to the trunk, he held on against the gale, till suddenly the wind stopped and a silence fell. The waves were quieted, the tree stood straight again, but there was no moon and not a thing could be seen. Now, in the dark of the night, he heard a garjon; soon he caught the smell of the unmanageable one. Terror seized his heart and he lost all consciousness; hed have fallen if the gamchha had not held him in place. He dreamed, in his oblivion of Bon Bibi. Fool! she said Dont be afraid; believe in me. This place youve come to, I value it as my own; if you are good at heart, here you will never be alone (P. 252). This incident leads the people of Garjontola to strengthen their trust in the power of Bon Bibi. Having been protected from a great danger by the grace of Bon Bibi, Kusums father becomes a staunch devotee of the goddess and in her respect he builds shrine. While living at Morichjhapi, Kusum pays visits to this shrine every year. Her father died while foraging for firewood and her mother, left alone after her husbands death, leaves Garjontola to find a job in the city. Finding herself unsafe in the village, Kusum goes to Dhanbad where she marries Rajen, a seller of food items on the railway station of Dhanbad. Morichjhapi is an eco-sensitive village, a couple of hours from Lusibari by boat. It falls within a part of the Sunderbans reserved for tiger conservation but like many villages it is relatively easily accessible from the mainland. In 1978 it happened that a great number of people suddenly appeared in Morichjhapi, cleared the plants and trees, built dams and put up huts. It happened so quickly that in the beginning none even knew who these people were but in time it came to be learnt that they were refugees from the government settlement camp in Dandakaranya, deep in the forests of Madhya Pradesh, hundreds of kilometers from Bengal. A few months after their settlement in the village, the government authorities declared the village and the area surrounding it as a protected forest reserve and made an announcement that as settlers were squatters and land grabbers, they would have to leave the village at the earliest. The government authorities spread the message in the area that all that was possible to evict the settlers would be done and if anyone was found helping them was sure to get into trouble. As the settlers were courageous and well-organized, the police did not succeed in evicting them from the village. With no option left, the policemen employed the gangsters to drive the settlers out and announced that all movements in and out of Morichjhapi was banned under the provision of the Forest Preservation Act and Section 144 was imposed on the whole area. Hundreds of policemen barricaded the settlements, stopped the supply of food items as a result of which the settlers were reduced to eating grass. As the tube wells were also destroyed and as a result thereof there was no drinking water, the settlers drank from puddles and ponds and an epidemic of Cholera had broken out. The West Bengal governments motive behind evicting the settlers of Morichjhhapi was to convert this village into a reserve forest so as to protect the trees and tigers. A message to this effect was conveyed by the policemen to the settlers: This island has to be saved for its trees, it has to be saved for its animals. It is a part of a reserve forest, it belongs to a project to save tigers, which is paid for by people from all around the world. (P. 284) An announcement of this message by the policemen hurts the sentiments of the settlers. Kusum expresses her anguish at this announcement in a very emotional manner. She represents the sentiments of the settlers when she says: The worst part was not the hunger or the thirst. It was to sit here, helpless, and listen to the policemen making announcement, hearing them say that our existence was worth less than dirt or dust. Every day, sitting here, with hunger gnawing at our bellies, we would listen to the words over and over again: who are these people. I wondered who love animals so much that they are willing to kill us for them. Do they know what is being done in their names? Where do they live, these people, do they have children, do they have mother, father? As I thought of these things, it seemed to me that this whole world has become a place of animals, and our fault, our crime was that we were just human beings, trying to live as human beings here, from the water and the soil. No human being could think this a crime unless they have forgotten that this is how humans have always lived by fishing by clearing land and by planting the soil. (P. 284) The gangsters, at the behest of the policemen, sink the settlers boats, set their huts ablaze and destroy their harvest. They also forcefully took away a group of women of Morichjhapi, used them and threw them into the sea to be washed away by the tide. A couple of men were beaten mercilessly and some of them were hacked to death. The news of brutal murders of the people of Morchjhapi committed by the gangsters at the provocation of the policemen appeared in the leading newspapers of India and the massacre was recorded in the history of the country. In spite of being illiterate, the inhabitants of this village have their plans, their programs for erecting a new future for themselves and determination to create a new land to live. Nirmal Bose is astonished to see the developments rapidly taking place in Morichjhapi. To quote him: There was much to show even in the short while I had been away, there had been many additions, many improvements. Saltpans have been created, tube wells had been planted, water had been dammed for the rearing of fish, a bakery had started up, boat-builders had set up workshops, a pottery had been founded as well as an ironsmiths shop; there were people making boats while other were fashioning nets and carbines; little market places, where all kinds of goods were being sold had sprung up. All this in the space of a few months! It was an astonishing spectacle-as though an entire civilization had sprouted suddenly in the mud. (P. 428) Under the leadership of the group leader of Morichjhapi, a grand feast is scheduled to be organized. A couple of distinguished writers, intellectuals and journalists from Calcutta are invited to participate in this feast. The purpose of organizing this feast is to tell these people about the achievements of the settlers so as to enlist the support of public opinion. The invited guests attend the feast, fully enjoy it and make their presence felt by way of making speeches. With regard to the success of the feast, Nirmal says: It was soon evident that the occasion has served its purpose: the guests were undeniably impressed. Speeches were made, extolling the achievements of the settlers. It was universally agreed that the significance of Morichjhapi extended far beyond the island itself. Was it possible, even, that in Morichjhapi had been planted the seeds of what might become if not a Dalit nation,then at least a safe haven, a place of true freedom for the countrys most oppressed? (P. 205) Of the villages described above, while Lusibari and Gajrontola are fictitious settings, Canning, Satjelia and Morichjhapi indeed exist in the tide country. The novelist has disclosed this fact in authors note where he says: The characters of this novel are fictitious as are its two principal settings, Lusibari and Garjontola. However, the secondary locations such as Canning, Gosaba, Satjelia, Morichjhapi and Emilybari do indeed exist and were indeed founded or settled in the manner alluded to here. (p. 428) To sum up, the novel presents the ground realities of rural life as lived in the villages of the tide country, aesthetically known as Sunderbans. These villages are hungry for economic development and technological advancement. Deprived of the benefits of modern development, the inhabitants of these villages still depend on boating and fishing for their livelihood, live in huts, shanties and shacks. They ungrudgingly bear the vagaries of nature and brutalities of policemen. The novelist has succeeded to arouse in the reader a deep sense of sympathy towards the rural people afflicted with extreme poverty. Ganga flows, tamed by Shiva’s locks, across northen India. Where Shiva’s jata ends, Ganga erupts out of the fringes and empties into the Bay of Bengal. The river delta creates a vast archipelago of islands, the Sundarbans, where mangrove jungles grow quickly on land not reclaimed by the tide. The tidal surge from the sea can cover three hundred kilometers, constantly reshaping or devouring islands, with just the tops of the jungles often visible at high tide. It is home to the Bengal tiger, huge crocodiles, sharks, snakes, impenetrable forests – and a few people trying to scratch out a living. I did not know much about the Tide Country, but after having read The Hungry Tide, I find it imposible to forget. It is a compelling story, full of ideas and no easy answers. Piyali Roy is an American scientist who has come to study the rare Irrawaddy dolphin which lives in the rivers of the tide country. Kanai is the owner of a successful translation business in Delhi and comes to the island of Lusibari. He is being summoned by his aunt, Nilima because of a package left to Kanai by her late husband, Nirmal, which has just been found some 20 years after his death. Nirmal and Nilima came to the Sundarbans when his revolutionary ideas became too dangerous in Calcutta. Nilima founded a cooperative which brought help, medicine, and ultimately a hospital to Lusibari, while Nirmal spent his career as headmaster of the local school. For a short time while Kanai was visiting his aunt and uncle as a youngster, a young woman named Kusum passed through their lives. The package now left to Kanai contains an account of the events at the end of Nirmal’s life, which revolved around Kusum, her son Fokir, and the catastrophic struggle of the dispossessed to form a new society on the island of Morichjhapi. Of Morichjhapi, Lotus Reads says, Morijhapi forms the most powerful backdrop to events and issues addressed in the novel. Morijhapi was declared a protected area by the Union government as part of Project Tiger launched in 1973 to preserve and protect the dwindling number of tigers in Indian forests. In 1978, the island was taken over by a group of poor and defenceless Bangladeshi refugees, seeking to set up an egalitarian world, free of maladies of class, caste, religion and poverty that had plagued them till date. But it was not to be. Clashes ensued between the State and the settlers. The Left Front government of West Bengal was determined to evict the human inhabitants in favour of its animal populace, which finally resulted in a police shoot out that killed scores of these helpless settlers and forced the rest to flee the island. The memories and memoirs of Morijhapi form a haunting prelude to the novel. Piya is a woman used to the solitude and rigors of the life of a scientist working in the field. Piya often works in areas where she knows neither the customs nor the language, and can survive for days on just energy bars and Ovaltine as she studies river dolphins, and here she falls into the company of Fokir, who is fishing for crabs with his son. Fokir brings Piya to Lusibari, where the paths of Piya, Kanai, and Fokir all merge. Ghosh creates a setting where everyone is on an even footing. The hostile environment erases all societal strata because everyone is an equal in the struggle to survive. This is a life Kanai doesn’t understand. In the Sundarbans, his wealth, servants, and pride have no value. While he feels himself to be superior to Fokir, on the river he needs Fokir’s skills to provide for his survival. Piya, who feels closest to the animals she studies, needs Kanai’s translation skills and Fokir’s local knowledge of the river and wildlife for her to do her research. At the center of all these relationships is Fokir, perhaps the truest soul in the novel. He’s an illiterate man, but possesses more knowledge of the river and its wildlife than all the outsiders who don’t understand him. Piya feels an affinity for Fokir and his life which matches the rhythms of his environment. Kanai, attracted to Piya and envious of Fokir, decides to accompany them on a trip up the river to study the dolphins. The three of them embark on a trip into the heart of the tide country which will bring lasting change to all of their lives. The Story This book took me a long time to read mainly because the atmosphere Ghosh creates through his rich descriptions is so very powerful and poetic. You want to absorb every word, phrase, or description you want to understand every detail. Ghosh has a remarkable power with language. The plot starts out simple enough with the chance encounter between two English speakers in an off-the-beaten-path destination in the Bay of Bengal: The Sundarbans. Piya, an American cetologist of Bengali heritage, is trying to collect information on the fabled Irawaddy dolphin population in the Ganges river; while Kanai, a well-established translator from Delhi, is trying to read through his late Uncles (Nirmal) last book he wrote shortly before dying. Yet the plot becomes increasingly elaborate and complicated as Piya and Kanai venture from the tiny village of Lusibari to the vast unchartered waters of the Sundarbans, known by the inhabitants as bhatir desh or the tide country. Complex stories increasingly grow and spring forth as Kanai and Piyas journey intertwines with Nirmals last written testament like the roots of the mangrove trees that pervade the Sundarban river forest. I would recommend this book to anyone who wishes to learn more about how to masterfully create setting and place. From the onset, I felt like I was transported to the tide country. I found myself researching different places and historical figures as soon as I came across a new term I did not know. From the legend of Bon Bibi to the cetacean population in the Ganges and Meghna rivers, I was so interested in this unknown corner of the world. Ghosh also does an incredible job describing the plants and animals that inhabit the region and further connecting these images to the German poet Rilke and local myths alike. At the end of the one passage, an Irawaddy dolphin floats to the top of the water near Nirmals boat. Relaying the experience in his journal, Nirmal uses an an excerpt from a Rilke poem to buttress his impression: some mute animal / raising its calm eyes and seeing through us / and through us. This is destiny The Reflection Additionally, I would recommend this book to anyone who is interested in learning about India and Asian issues alike. The book touches on a lot of social topics that plague India and many parts of the developing world in general. One of the more interesting of these is the pressing conflict between human poverty and environmental insecurity caused by global warming and the worlds ever-increasing population. As police forces are raiding and patrolling the island of Morichjhapi where refugees have sought sanctuary, Kusum says the following to Nirmal and Horen: Saar, she said wiping her face, the worst part was not the hunger or the thirst. It was to sit here, helpless, and listen to the policeman making their announcements, hearing them say that our lives, our existence, were worth less than dirt or dust. This island has to be saved for its trees, it has to be saved for its animals, it is a part of a reserve forest, it belongs to a project to save tigers, which is paid for by people from all around the world. Everyday, sitting here, with hunger gnawing at our bellies, we would listen to these words, over and over again. Who are these people, I wondered, who love animals so much they are willing to kiss us for them? Do they know what is being done in their names? Where do they live, these people? Do they have children, do they have mothers, fathers? As I thought of these things, it seemed to me that this whole world has become a place of animals, and our fault, our crime, was that we were just human beings, trying to live as human beings always have, from the water and the soil. No one could think this is a crime unless they have forgotten that this is how humans have always lived- by fishing, by clearing the land, and by planting the soil. Living in a very poor area of China, I have experienced this issue from a new vantage point. Organizations and governments are quick to blame farmers and people living in rural areas (akin to the characters in this book) for destroying natural habitats and the local ecology with traditional practices e. g. slash and burn farming, over-hunting, etc. These people and their practices are deemed uneducated and backward. Its easy to criticize these people when you arent living in extreme destitution and/or are not aware of the real causes to the major environmental problems that our planet faces. Unfortunately, loss of species and ecological habitats are not consequences of these peoples lifestyles, but rather the damages wrecked by generations of people all over the (insert: western) world. I find it to be an opportune moment to insert yet again another Rilke quote used in the book to further accentuate the ideas discussed here: Some simple thing shaped for generation after generation / until it lives in our hands and in our eyes, and its ours. Additionally, those resources that are exploited in the developing world are not being consumed by the people extracting them; they are exploited to meet the ever-increasing demand of rich consumers hundreds, sometimes thousands, of miles away. Ghosh not only enables the reader to truly refl ect on the environmental catastrophes of the 21st century, but also digs down to the real pain of suffering. As I contemplate the words and sorrows of Kusum and others who suffer the same fate as her, I am reminded by a small story retold by Paulo Coelho in one of his recent books about a Japanese man who died from cardiac arrest in his home in 1984 only to be found 20 years later. For 20 years, his body rotted and his existence vanished from the world without anyone ever taking notice. Coelho remarks, I can only conclude that worse than hunger or thirst, worse than being unemployed, unhappy in love or defeated and in despair, far worse than any of these things, is feeling that no one, absolutely no one, cares about us. Aside from race, gender, social status, religious affiliation and any other factors that may seem to separate us, we are all human beings trying to live and survive on this planet. At the end of the day, its important to remember that we have each experienced joy, happiness, pain and suffering in our own way. Understanding that our experiences are not as disparate as they may seem can create compassion and build bridges even in the most unique circumstances.