Of Tigers, Dolphins, Cyclones and Lunar Rainbows

The Hungry Tide by Amitav Ghosh is a "good" book  - note that I don't say "wonderful," as I do for most of his other books. In his usual style, Ghosh deftly weaves fiction with fact, the past with the present and geography with history. The result while interesting, has a slightly unpolished feel about it.

Or perhaps the author intended it that way. The story unfolds in the Sundarbans, the ferocious untamed jungle country in the Gangetic peninsula which begins at the edge of West Bengal in eastern India and stretches across the southern parts of Bangladesh upto its border with Myanmar. The region consists of a vast archipelago on the Bay of Bengal which the author describes as the "ragged fringed edge" of Mother India's sari. It is a place where nature is both beguilingly prolific and ruthlessly savage. The jungles are thick and teeming with flora and fauna, the former dominated by the hardy mangrove and the latter by the magnificent Royal Bengal tiger. The intricate canals of the Sundarbans with channels of salt and fresh water, support numerous aquatic creatures which include fish, crocodiles, crabs and snakes. It is also the home of the south Asian Irrawady dolphin - a rare species of river dolphins. The islands of the Sundarbans are regularly battered by floods and cyclones. The human inhabitants of the islands are poor and depend mostly on the river and the jungle for their livelihood because the land is not suitable for agriculture due to repeated flooding with salt water. And they live their precarious and meager lives with one eye on the ebb and flow of the tide and the other on the menacing clouds which signal that a storm is brewing.

It is in this remote place that we find the female protagonist of the book getting off a train in a dusty and dilapidated place with the unlikely British name of Canning. Piya Roy is an Indian American marine biologist from Seattle who has come there to do what she hopes will be her seminal cetological research. She wants to find and study the elusive river dolphins whose population has dwindled drastically. Piya, whose parents are Bengalis is back in the land of her ancestors. Despite her ethnic Indian looks, her body language, manner of dress and bold independent ways clearly set her apart as a foreigner in the eyes of local observers. She needs help in both navigating her way around land and water and for communicating with non English speakers. She finds what she is seeking from two men. Fokir, an illiterate fisherman born and bred in the Sundarbans becomes her guide on the river. The man who becomes Pia's translator is Kanai. He is an educated, multi-lingual ladies' man who has come there to see his idealistic social worker aunt whose deceased husband has left a journal for his nephew.

The Hungry Tide describes Piya's journey through land and the intricate waterways of the Sundarbans. She finds the dolphins but also experiences many furies of nature. The story unfolds at several levels. There is the history and the myth surrounding the islands and their inhabitants as recorded in the diary of Kanai's uncle. The socio-political condition is evident in the tireless efforts by Kanai's aunt to improve the health and education of the locals, especially women and children. The ecological aspect is addressed in the context of Piya's research. In the midst of it all, a palpable sexual tension is created by one woman and two men finding themselves in close proximity within the limited confines of a boat.  Fokir who is married, illiterate and pitifully awkward on land and with whom Pia must communicate with gestures, becomes a strangely attractive creature on water because of his intimate knowledge and confident ease about the river and its mysteries. Kanai, with whom Pia has much more in common in terms of education, language and social class, fails to connect with her despite his sincere efforts. The book ends in a natural catastrophe and human tragedy. But also on a note of success and hope.

The Hungry Tide provides some terrific insights into the Sundarban's mythical, hisorical, ecological and contemporary sociological background.  But there is a disconnect in the narrative and it struck a false note.  The parallel stories of the characters in the present and the history and myths recorded in Kanai's uncle's journal were perhaps meant by the author to give a complete picture of life on the Gangetic delta. But I felt somewhat jarred by the backing and forthing and due to the excess of folklores and myths. Ghosh is a very fine writer and I am a great admirer. But The Hungry Tide for some reason had the feel of a "translation." I felt as if I was reading a story originally composed in Bengali and later transcribed into English - a bit haltingly and self consciously. I also had a hard time picturing the topography of the region. But that may be my own shortcoming. I seem to be able to visualize urban scenes in places that I have never seen much more clearly than I do unvarnished nature. But the most disappointing feature of the book was the oddly stilted dialogue. The characters seemed more real when they were thinking or silent than when they spoke to each other. Pia, the main character, remained a sketchy, aloof and unfleshed out person till the end. For those who have read Amitav Ghosh before, it is a book surely worth reading. To those who have never read him, I would say that this is not the book with which to begin one's exploration.

One bit of translation trivia:  As is common (now customary) in contemporary south Asian literature in English, many Indian words (in this case, Bengali) are used throughout the story. Some are simultaneously translated by the author and some are not. One word which Ghosh uses repeatedly is gamcha (I would have preferred the spelling "gamchha.") Ghosh doesn't explain but one can guess its meaning from the use the object is put to. A gamcha is literally translated as "body wipe" and it is made out of very thin and usually checkered cotton cloth. In rural Bengal a gamcha is variously used as a towel or large kerchief, as a turban in the heat and sometimes even as a small fishing net.  If you look at the author's photo in the back jacket cover of the book, you will notice that he is wearing a red and white checkered scarf around his neck that looks a bit like an Arab kaffiye.  I looked closely - it is a gamcha.

Comments

[Masale.Wallah]

Hello Ruchira (or would Mrs. Paul be more appropriate, since I would be about your children's age!)

Arrived here via your comment on Sepia Mutiny and just wanted to say hello. Plan to be a regular here, henceforth.

[Ruchira Paul]

You can call me either - just don't call me Aunty. :-)

And welcome! Hope you will find something of interest most of the time. We have an opinion on everything.

[Sujatha]

Which book of Amitav Ghosh's would you recommend for a first time reader? I checked in my local library and they have the "Antique Land" book and "The Calcutta Chromosome".

[Masale.Wallah]

Sujatha, "The Calcutta Chromosome" is a pretty good read.

[Ruchira Paul]

Read both. I loved "In An Antique Land" which is non-fiction and is a book length account of Ghosh's graduate thesis in history. It deals with the ancient trade route between India and Egypt.

M.W. is recommending "The Calcutta Chromosome" which won the Arthur C. Clarke award for science fiction. I am a fan of sci-fi but I found the book unsatisfying. It deals with a hypothetical scenario of chromosomal transmission of malaria. Part ghost story, part science fiction, part history, it is written in Ghosh's usual elegant style. But it did not come together for me in the end. See my review of S.Asian writers in the books & authors section. I criticized The Calcutta.. and one of our blogger friends who runs a science blog, took me to task.

You should also look for "The Glass Palace."

[Sujatha]

Thanks, I'll try the "In An Antique Land" first- had an overdose of sci-fi books recently.

[sukrita paul kumar]

My favourite is Shadowlines by Ghosh.