Book: The Hungry Tide
Genre: Fiction
Author: Amitav Ghosh
Price: Rs. 200.00
“They cannot look out far.
They cannot look in deep.
But when was that ever a bar
To any watch they keep?”
Robert Frost-Neither Out Far Nor In Deep
“Kanai spotted her the moment she stepped onto the crowded platform: he was deceived neither by her close-cropped black hair, nor by her clothes, which were those of a teenage boy-loose cotton pants and oversized white shirt. Winding unerringly through the snack-vendors and tea-sellers who were hawking their wares on the station`s platform, his eyes settled on her slim, shapely figure. Her face was long and narrow, with an elegance of line markedly at odds with the severity of her haircut. There was no bindi on her forehead and her arms were free of bangles and bracelets, but on one of her ears was a silver stud, glinting brightly against the sun-deepened darkness of her skin…..”
Piyali Roy, an American cetelogist of Indian parentage arrives in the Sundarbans, an immense archipelago of islands on the easternmost coast of India, between the sea and the plains of Bengal to do a survey of the marine mammals of the Sundarbans. Kanai Dutt, a sophisticated Delhi businessman too happens to visit the same area for personal reasons. The two protagonists are joined by a third Fokir, an illiterate but proud local man whom Piyali hires to guide her through the backwaters, as she is on the track of rare river dolphins. It is Kanai who becomes the translator between them. And here the tide begins to turn…..
Amitav Ghosh, the author, was born in Calcutta and spent his childhood in Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and northern India. He studied in Delhi, Oxford and Egypt and has taught in a number of Indian and American universities. He has also authored The Circle of Reason, the Shadow Lines, In an Antique Land, The Calcutta Chromosome, Dancing in Cambodia, At Large in Burma, Countdown, The Glass Palace, the Iman and the Indian.
The main characters in the novel are Piyali Roy, the American cetelogist; Kanai Dutt, the Delhi businessman and Piya`s translator; Fokir, Piya`s guide; Nilima Bose, the social worker and the founder of Badabon Trust; Moyona, the ambitious worldly-wise wife of Fokir; Tutul, the child of fokir and Moyona; Horen, Fokir`s uncle; Kusum, the late mother of Fokir; and Nirmal Bose, a political radical and the late spouse of Nilima Bose. The last two are perhaps the most important characters of the novel, because, although they are both already dead, in the flashbacks, they are frequently referred to. Also, Nirmal`s notebook, bequeathed to his nephew Kanai shortly before his death threading through the same plot sheds light on the political history of the Sundarbans even if it appears to be an insignificant personal account written by a failed revolutionary in his senility.
Blending imagination with myth and embellishing fiction with poetry from Rainer Maria Rilke, a great German poet, Ghosh in lucid, poetic, if a bit formal Indian English narrates a superb story. Quite unlike a Dan Brown, The Hungry tide flows as slowly and as rhythmically as water on a river. But, it has its own tides and ebbs, rises and falls, and peaks and troughs. The languid fury of water whose outburst causes destruction beyond imagination is masterfully depicted throughout the novel. The last message/warning is both sharp and clear: no matter how intelligent, how industrious, how ingenious man is. In his dealings with Nature, it is damned foolish of him to seek to have the upper hand. Man is but a miniscule, utterly insignificant part of Nature. Or a mere strand of one gigantic web. If Nature wills it to happen, it will happen whether man likes it or not.
In the novel, obviously, the pathetic lot of humanity is in sharp contrast to the all-powerful Nature, the destroyer and the preserver. It is the tides and the ebbs that rule the tide country. It is the flood that makes or mars it. That is why Ghosh writes:
“……At low tide, when the embankment is riding high on the water, Lusibari looked like one some gigantic earthen ark, floating serenely above its surroundings. Only at high tide was it evident that the interior of the inland lay well below the level of water. At such times, the unsinkable ship of a few hours before took on the appearance of a flimsy saucer that could tip over at any moment and go circling down into the depths…...” Can anything else be more eloquently symbolic of the vulnerability of Man and all his inventions with which he tries to defy the Nature?
Be that as it may, man should always count his blessings and does not have to be overwhelmed by the power and the force of Nature. Still, compared against the infinity of Nature, man has little to proud himself upon, either. I remember a few Shakespearean lines.
“….Man, proud man,
Dress'd in a little brief authority,
Most ignorant of what he's most assure'd –
His glassy essence - like an angry ape
Plays such fantastic tricks before high heaven
As makes the angels weep….”
The power the flood wields over the Sundarbans reminds me of Shelly in ‘Ode to the West Wind’ which I have already alluded to:
“… Wild spirit, which art moving everywhere;
Destroyer and presever; hear O hear!....”
The simple wisdom of the god-fearing, if illiterate, rustic, Fokir saves Piya`s life when the tsunami strikes home. His bravery and generosity, exemplified in the sacrifice of his own life to save a foreigner cannot help but touch the readers` hearts. Fokir, in his own way, that is by worshipping Bon Bibi, the protectress, he willingly submits to Nature`s will. Maybe he knows little about conservation of marine life. But, then, he knows how to live in harmony with Nature not against it. It might strike a chord of sentimentality to say that he transcends all others-Piya, Kanai, Nilima, Moyona and others in the ultimate sacrifice he makes in the end; nevertheless, it is obvious that an ordinary man can hardly do such a thing.
Also, in the novel, Ghosh places side by side the necessity for conservation of wild life and the human cost of it. The moment one side of the equation get smaller or greater than the other, the balance is tipped and the problems arise. Like the human-elephant conflict in our country, the dilemma is ever-lasting. Because of this conflict of interest, the situation worsens by the day. In conclusion, I believe, Ghosh has written a remarkable novel. I certainly feel privileged to have enjoyed it.
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