THE HUNGRY TIDE

BOOK: THE HUNGRY TIDE
AUTHOR: AMITAV GHOSH

Not a thriller, not a murder mystery, nor even a romantic fiction, yet The Hungry Tide will get one easily glued to one’s seat till the end. Amitav Ghosh takes readers to a fascinating variety of islands inhabited by poor but land-loving people. Having been awarded the best work in fiction, Ghosh has undoubtedly succeeded in giving readers a feel, a complete descriptive image of the Sundarbans, especially the tide country. With classic descriptions of places and the various characters, the author, who is known to bag an award for every other book he writes, easily manages to enthrall readers with this book.
Amitav Ghosh elucidates his distinctive, polished and profound literary skills. The description of the various places and characters imprints perfect and clear images on the mind of the reader; it would not be a surprise if one imagines oneself to be character of the book, for the book really takes one to the tide country.
A carefully, masterfully woven novel, it contains understandable metaphysics.
As a skilled practitioner of Indian writing in English, Ghosh’s story-telling is at its best. A powerful combination of narration and story is what that makes this book worth reading. It is an ideal book for readers reading books to improve and develop their language; for the language used is prosaic, making the piece of work truly admirable.
The novel starts off on the Kolkata railway station where Kanai, one of the protagonists sees Piya another protagonist. As the story progresses, Kanai, the sophisticated Delhi businessman becomes fond of Piya, who is a cetologist. The story describes an excellent love-triangle when another protagonist, Fokir, a local fisherman enters into the picture.
The Hungry Tide depicts a detailed character sketch of each of the characters in the book. Ghoshji derives an amazing character out of the simple, illiterate Fokir, which makes the reader like him. A few scenes- for example, Piya offering a bunch of notes to Fokir for saving her from the muddy water and for agreeing to take her to Lusibari and Fokir, and Fofir taking just on enote and letting her know through gestures to pay him after she reaches Lusibari safely- not only makes admire the character in Fokir, but also shows that communication can be done effectively wiyhout spoken words.
Another character portrayed is that of Nirmal’s, Kanai’s uncle, who does not have a specific role in the book. Nirmal’s character is portrayed excellently through his diary. The diary not just shows how good a writer Nirmal is, but also shows that Ghoshji is a writer par excellence.
All the characters in the book are admirable in their own way. Kanai and Nirmal showing a particular interst towards language, Piya interested in a specific breed of dolphins known as Orcealla or the Irrawady dolphins, Moyna, who regards education more than anything else and who is highly ambitious, Nilima showing a specific interst in social service and Fokir interested in …catching crabs! Kusum is yet another charater who is portrayed as a mentally strong person. Yet, what makes the book truly admirable is that, Kusum, inspite of being morally strong is also vulnerable and is also at times driven to tears.
Even though the book, as a whole is interesting, there are certain chapters that draw the attention of the reader and make him remember the book. A chapter named “A Killing” shows various kinds of human behavior. In the chapter, a tiger that is renowned for killing two people and innumerable livestock is captured. Here, Ghoshji elucidates three types of human behavior and thinking; the villagers and Fokir who mercilessly capture the tiger and burn the animal, Piya who is sympathetic towards the animal and thinks that even animals are same as humans, and Kanai and Horen who are indifferent towards the situation and do not really care if the tiger is killed or not.
Throughout the book, Ghoshji narrates interesting stories like those of Bon Bibi’s glory and of how she and her brother Shah Jongoli saves a lad named Dukhey from Dokkhin Rai, a devil king. Other interesting stories include those of Port Canning; how Lord Canning, a viceroy builds a port inspite of repeated warnings from Mr. Piddington, a lowly shipping inspector, about cyclones and later finds the port blown away with a minor storm. The story of Sir Daniel Hamilton, of how he builds a school and shows everyone his dreams and almost making them a reality is also very interesting.
The Hungry Tide is a fascinating book and is definitely a must-read. The book transports one to another world and shows one various kinds of cultures and people.
All that can be said now is that the book is so good that after reading it one would be inspired to write something like this!