Tuesday, May 13, 2008
Book Review - The Hungry Tide by Amitav Ghosh
Though there are many novels and stories based on the river Ganges and inhabitants of its delta, very few efforts have been put to capture the life of the people who lives the Sundarban, the vast archipelago of islands where mangrove jungles grow quickly on land not reclaimed by the tide, and probably most interesting of the places along The Ganges. This is called tide country because 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. Amitav Ghosh sets his engaging novel, The Hungry Tide in this tide country which is home to the Bengal tiger, huge crocodiles, sharks, snakes, impenetrable forests, and a few people trying to scratch out a living.
At the beginning of the 20th century, Sir Daniel Hamilton decided to create a utopian society there, offering free land to those willing to work as long as they accepted the others as equals, regardless of caste or ethnicity. It's a difficult life that leaves most women widowed at a young age and land barely farmable if the saltwater of the hungry tide can be kept from flooding their fields.
The story starts in a busy railway stations in Kolkata, where Piya, an American scientist who has come to study the rare Irrawaddy dolphin which lives in the rivers of the tide country, & Kanai, a Delhi Businessman, were waiting to for the train to canning, which is the gateway to Sundarban. The book is told from the perspective of these two main characters. Kanai had been to Lusibari as a teenager, sent by his parents to be "rusticated" for his pride and arrogance. He's now being summoned by Nilima because of a package left to Kanai by her late husband, Nirmal, which has just been found some 20 years after his death. The package left to Kanai contains an account of the events at the end of Nirmal's life, which revolved around a village girl Kusum, her son Fokir, and the catastrophic struggle of the dispossessed to form a new society on the island of Morichjhãpi.
Piya Roy is the daughter of Bangali parents who had immigrated to Seattle. She's a woman used to the solitude and rigors of the life of a scientist working in the field. She's come to the Sundarbans to find more of these rare creatures. Events land her in the small boat belonging to Fokir, who is fishing for crabs with his son. Fokir brings Piya to Lusibari, where the paths of Piya, Kanai, and Fokir all merge.
Setting The Hungry Tide in the Sundarbans allows Amitav Ghosh to create a setting where everyone is on an even footing. The hostile environment ensures that everyone is an equal in the struggle to survive. This theme runs continuously throughout the novel. At the center of all relationships described in this novel is Fokir, one of the truest soul in the novel. In spite of being an illiterate, he possesses more knowledge of the river and its wildlife than all the outsiders. 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.
As the tide changes the environment daily, life also here is uncertain. It's a place where people continues to live fighting with Tigers & Crocodiles. It's a place where tigers kill hundreds of people a year, but killing a tiger will bring punishment as they are protected. Amitav Ghosh lets the tide country break down the barriers of both society and his characters as In an environment like this the essence of any person is broken down to its core.
Author moves through the geography of the area, scientific information, history, the stories of the local deities and weaves them so well that sometime we forget that this is a novel. You start feeling that he is describing the real facts of life. It shows that it told properly the explanation of the exotic, whether scientific, geographic, or historical, can be as engaging as the lives of the characters. Though many people may not like it and find it to be information overloading, the history of the scientific research of the river dolphin and their association with river Ganges very interesting. We heard from our childhood that once upon a time there used to be dolphins in Ganges and they used to come up to Kolkata during upstream, but never got to know about them in so much detail.
The Hungry Tide is a compelling book about ordinary people bound together in an exotic place that can consume them all. It is one of the very few novels which depicts human emotions, love, jealousy, pride, and trust, in the backdrop of an uncertain environment; and that makes the difference. That's a lesson we all can learn, again, as we follow Piya, Kanai, and Fokir into the heart of tide country.
At the beginning of the 20th century, Sir Daniel Hamilton decided to create a utopian society there, offering free land to those willing to work as long as they accepted the others as equals, regardless of caste or ethnicity. It's a difficult life that leaves most women widowed at a young age and land barely farmable if the saltwater of the hungry tide can be kept from flooding their fields.
The story starts in a busy railway stations in Kolkata, where Piya, an American scientist who has come to study the rare Irrawaddy dolphin which lives in the rivers of the tide country, & Kanai, a Delhi Businessman, were waiting to for the train to canning, which is the gateway to Sundarban. The book is told from the perspective of these two main characters. Kanai had been to Lusibari as a teenager, sent by his parents to be "rusticated" for his pride and arrogance. He's now being summoned by Nilima because of a package left to Kanai by her late husband, Nirmal, which has just been found some 20 years after his death. The package left to Kanai contains an account of the events at the end of Nirmal's life, which revolved around a village girl Kusum, her son Fokir, and the catastrophic struggle of the dispossessed to form a new society on the island of Morichjhãpi.
Piya Roy is the daughter of Bangali parents who had immigrated to Seattle. She's a woman used to the solitude and rigors of the life of a scientist working in the field. She's come to the Sundarbans to find more of these rare creatures. Events land her in the small boat belonging to Fokir, who is fishing for crabs with his son. Fokir brings Piya to Lusibari, where the paths of Piya, Kanai, and Fokir all merge.
Setting The Hungry Tide in the Sundarbans allows Amitav Ghosh to create a setting where everyone is on an even footing. The hostile environment ensures that everyone is an equal in the struggle to survive. This theme runs continuously throughout the novel. At the center of all relationships described in this novel is Fokir, one of the truest soul in the novel. In spite of being an illiterate, he possesses more knowledge of the river and its wildlife than all the outsiders. 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.
As the tide changes the environment daily, life also here is uncertain. It's a place where people continues to live fighting with Tigers & Crocodiles. It's a place where tigers kill hundreds of people a year, but killing a tiger will bring punishment as they are protected. Amitav Ghosh lets the tide country break down the barriers of both society and his characters as In an environment like this the essence of any person is broken down to its core.
Author moves through the geography of the area, scientific information, history, the stories of the local deities and weaves them so well that sometime we forget that this is a novel. You start feeling that he is describing the real facts of life. It shows that it told properly the explanation of the exotic, whether scientific, geographic, or historical, can be as engaging as the lives of the characters. Though many people may not like it and find it to be information overloading, the history of the scientific research of the river dolphin and their association with river Ganges very interesting. We heard from our childhood that once upon a time there used to be dolphins in Ganges and they used to come up to Kolkata during upstream, but never got to know about them in so much detail.
The Hungry Tide is a compelling book about ordinary people bound together in an exotic place that can consume them all. It is one of the very few novels which depicts human emotions, love, jealousy, pride, and trust, in the backdrop of an uncertain environment; and that makes the difference. That's a lesson we all can learn, again, as we follow Piya, Kanai, and Fokir into the heart of tide country.
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