I continue on my literary exploration of the Sundarbans, between India and Bangladesh. one of the most mysterious places on earth, where tigers struggle against extinction, and a fragile, beautiful environment is disappearing day by day.
"The Hungry Tide" by Amitav Ghosh was neither my favorite book by Mr. Ghosh, not my favorite about the great tidal wonderland I love but will never visit but in books and films.
I really didn't connect with any of the characters. They all had a lack of warmth to them. It may have been intentional. I found it off putting.
The book was so much a slog for me that when the climax occurred I felt no ride in heartbeat, no quickened breath, just a feeling of, "Oh, something is happening at last."
I was so bored I wished a tiger would eat someone.

জালের মতো ছড়িয়ে ছিটিয়ে থাকা সুন্দরবনের অসংখ্য নদী। সেখানে জলে কুমীর , ডাঙ্গায় বাঘ। কখনও কখনও ইতিউতি দেখা মেলে শুশুকের দল। সেই ভয়াল সুন্দরবনে ডলফিল নিয়ে গবেষণা করতে এলেন পিয়ালি রয়। ক্যানিং নামের কাদা থিকথিকে এক শহরে দেখা অনুবাদক ও বহুভাষাবাদিক কানাইয়ের সাথে। দ্য হাংরি টাইডের শুরুটা এভাবেই।

অমিতাভ ঘোষের লেখার যে জাদু, বিপুল বিস্তারে ছড়িয়ে আস্তে আস্তে জাল গোটানো, তার ষোলআনা এই উপন্যাসে আছে। এর আগে লেখকের “ইন অ্যান অ্যান্টিক ল্যান্ড” পড়েছিলাম, সেটা অবশ্য ননফিকশন ছিল। এই বইয়ে অমিতাভ যেন ফিরে যেতে হয়েছেন শেকড়ের কাছে। কখনও কখনও বর্ণনার আধিক্যে অবশ্য উপন্যাসের গতি একটু টাল খেয়েছে, তবে সবকিছু ছাপিয়ে এই উপন্যাস যেন মনে করিয়ে দিয়েছে মরিচঝাপির সেই অগ্নিঝরা সময়টুকু। বাস্তুহারা মানুষকে পশ্চিমবঙ্গ সরকার কীভাবে নিশ্চিহ্ন করে দিয়েছিল, সেই বিবরণ আরও অনেক বইতে আছে। অমিতাভ ইতিহাসের পরানের গহীন থেকে তুলে আনতে চেয়েছেন প্রায় বিস্মৃতিতে চলে যাওয়া সেই কালো অধ্যায়। তাতে অনুষঙ্গ হিসেবে এসেছে পিয়ালি, কানাই, ফকির, ময়নারা। আর দুই যুগের মধ্যে সেতুবন্ধ রচনা করেছেন নির্মল নামের একজন কল্পনাবিলাসী আধবুড়ো। এমন একটা বই, সুগন্ধির মতো যেটার রেশ থেকে যায় অনেক অনেক ক্ষণ

A beautiful novel of place, feeling, love, and language, The Hungry Tide demands of the reader an appreciation of the feeling the story burns with. In the tide country, lives are hard, easily extinguished, and seldom valued by the nation that contains them. And yet, the people for whom its ebbs and flows are time itself, home can be nowhere else. Amitav Ghosh's characters are sometimes hard to understand, they sometimes even threaten to become caricatures, but what holds this powerful, moving story together is the underlying romance of a people being where they belong.

I think I'll have to reread this.

I'm sorry to say I could not finish this. I got about a third of the way through. I greatly enjoyed The Calcutta Chromosome and Sea of Poppies and have liked other books by this author, more or less, but this was unbearable. The setting is squalid and hellish, an island half-drowned in the mud of the Ganges delta. The characters did not interest me, and a developing romance between an Indian-American marine biologist and a Bengali fisherman seemed preposterously unlikely, although in fairness I didn't read far enough to see whether they actually got together. The author keeps harping on Bengali grievances, which are now becoming something of a pedal point in all his writing; frankly, I think it's time he took his foot off that particular pedal.

Oh, it has river-dolphins in it. I've just finished editing a book on Indian Ocean cetaceans, which means I'm in the throes of a fading but still-strong professional fascination with whales and dolphins. For all that, however, Ghosh still managed to bore me with his.

If Shadow Lines enthralled you, Amitav Ghosh's latest masterpiece, the Hungry Tide, will sweep you off your feet, and into the precarious waters of the Sundarbans.In the typical Ghosh style, the narrative moves fluidly between past and present. You will be transported into the mindset of the superstitious yet brave folk, who have adapted themselves to the constant ebb and flow of the tide and are living in continuous fear of the Bengal tigers. The tide begins to turn with the advent of two seekers from the outside world - Piyali Roy, an Indian-American marine biologist in search of the Irrawaddy dolphins and Kanai Dutt, an urbane translator from New Delhi who's there to retrieve his deceased uncle Nirmal's journal. Their lives become intertwined particularly with Fokir, an illiterate but proud fisherman, who has the "rivers in his heart." As the narrative progresses, they are forced to respect nature in order to survive, and to communicate with people who differ not only in language but also in equations of existence. It is a story of love, revolution, brutal history and the place of man within the treacheries of nature. It seems to underscore Nirmal's observation that "nothing escapes the maw of the tides."

Home is where Orcaella are - says Pia
Home is where I can brew a perfect cup,of tea - says Nilima
Home is where books as fine as this reside - says Me

This was a very educational journey into the tide country - the Sunderbans.
So far, Sunderban has just been a printed name in my geography text books of yore. After years I encountered it in all its glory, ruthlessness and ethereal beauty, along with the magical folklore, which seems almost real to me, and the majestic man eating tiger.
I will never forget the beauty of a rainbow hanging low over moonlight, or the ruthless storm uprooting giant trees as if those were small twigs placed in the ground,,or the madly rushing tidal waters of the river, or the groups of river dolphins.
I learnt a lot from Pia, Nirmal, Horen and Fokir.
I learnt to love animals and nature. I became an environmentalist, a zoologist, a thinker. (philosophy still eludes me)
The ending was majestic.
I will not forget Fokir for a long time to come. I will be less judgemental of people whom I encounter in my day to day life.
Every person has something which I don't have, every person has a higher education than their counterpart in one way or other.

thank you, Amitav Ghosh :-)

This is my first book by Amitav Ghosh and why didn't I read him before?

The Hungry Tide follows Piyali Roy, an Indian-American cetologist, who comes to India on the trail of the Gangetic dolphin and, more importantly, the Irrawaddy dolphin. Her search leads her to the eastern edge of the country - a group of archipelagos that go by the name of Sunderbans.

The story begins with the meeting of Piyali (Piya) and Kanai (rhymes with Hawaii) Dutt, a translator and interpreter based out of Delhi. Kanai is heading to Canning from where he will proceed to Lusibari that is the last populated area before the forests begin. He is headed to his aunt's home in the remote village.

Though both go their different ways in Canning, Piya ends up in Lusibari after a few days. In the meantime, she meets Fokir, a quiet but efficient fisherman. That they cannot speak with each other because they have no language in common does not come between them.

In due course, Piya reaches Lusibari and meets Kanai. Kanai has spent his time at Lusibari deciphering the cryptic diary entries of his somewhat eccentric uncle. Desparate for some company, Kanai volunteers to go on a dolphin-seeking journey with Piya and Fokir.

The three of them explore the delta region that can be both benevolent and tumultuous in turns. It can give as much as it can take away. In the background, we encounter the politics of the area, the fragility of humans, the resilience in the face of adversity, the fulfilled smiles, and the broken hearts of many who touch the protagonists in passing.

I have never been to the Sunderbans even though I have lived in India all my life. Of course, I have read about it in school but this book took me there. I walked among the mangroves, saw the pugmarks of the maneaters - the Royal Bengal Tiger - up close, gasped as the crocodiles swiftly and stealthily swam up to my boat, and smiled when the dolphins sounded. It was a physical experience I went through right in my living room.

People are people. They make mistakes, they take the wrong decisions, they are weak. But these attributes are what makes a person unique.

Every person in this book has his or her own story. They may think they are right, but are they really? Is practicality a good thing or is revolution the way forward? Do we need to move ahead with the times or remain steadfast in our beliefs? Amitav Ghosh explores such topics in this book.

I must make a special mention to a couple of pages of Arabic to English translation that caught my attention. There is a prayer named Bon Bibi Johurnama which means The Glory of Bon Bibi. Originally written in Arabic, it is recited in the style of a typical Hindu prayer. The author has translated it into English but by writing it in rhyming couplets. It doesn't come to attention immediately but when I was reading the book, I realized it wasn't regular text. I went back to the start to read the section again and there it was. Beautifully executed.

What more can I say about a book that has captured my imagination this way?

5 stars.

I loved it!

I dreaded picking it up, but for $1 at the local library's sale shelves, it wad hard to resist. I did. Then I sat on it a good while. Then I started and then kicked myself for not starting earlier.
I have been reading so many Indian authors that it got a bit repetitive. Then Bengali authors have the propensity to romance even dry bran, and I mean that in a nice way, so I was pleasantly shocked that though he was as descriptive as they are, he did not ramble. The descriptions were just enough to give you enough background for you to understand how the story was set and how and why the characters behaved the way they did.
The story is so entrenched in the Sundarbans and the whales and the science and research and the hardships they endured and still do. Maybe this came on the close heels of Arati Kumar-Rao's excellent photo journalism of the sundarbans and the oil spill and the (lack of) proper clean up. Maybe the main female character reminded me of a couple of women am friendly with, who live the single life dedicated to their work, or maybe it was the story itself.
The relationships between the main 4 characters and the two who support them is just vivid and as real as can be.

A must pick up and don't give up. It's worth it.

This is the story of the islands, activism, dolphins, poets, boats, the locals, mangroves, storms, tigers, and most of all, the river tide. Informational, poetic and heartbreaking, this is a beautiful book that I enjoyed reading.

It opens with Piya, an American cetologist (studies mammals) of Indian origin, who is heading to the 'tide country' (the islands in Bay of Bengal along the Sunderbans) to study Dolphins (genus: Orcaella). Kanai, a Delhi based translator, also going there to meet his Mashima(aunt) after his uncle had left him a notebook that were meant only for Kanai's eyes.
Piya's tryst with Fokir, a boatman who saves her life, and seeks his help in navigating around the intricate 'mohonas' in the river. The story becomes riveting when all the characters meet each other.

The most prominent feature of the book is the research that has gone into it. The depiction of mangroves, storms and the intricate details about the Orcaella are breathtaking. Overall, a great read.

4.5 stars

Might bump it up to 5 stars, review to come when my thoughts are relatively coherent.

I really liked this book and I guess many more strange and personal circumstances surround my experience of it to share here. But I guess everyone knows that feeling when a certain book finds them at a certain time. In Amitav Ghosh's books, though maybe others find the theme repetitive, I really find recognition in the different kinds of alienations different characters are going through. And in both Shadow Lines and The Hungry Tide I felt this, the vast experiences of people of the Indian subcontinent, the multiple perspectives of the same history that are almost as densely netted as the rivers of the Sunderbans themselves. Also, personally I was really happy with all the lengthy passages about the dolphins, how Piya studies the dolphins, all the history that different chracters were interested in :)

The book was highly evocative for me. I really identified with Piya in the beginning of the book, and my mother also strangely recently told me that Piya reminded her of me even when I was just a child (when she picked up this book, long ago). I also like how Amitav Ghosh uses changing POVs -- you really feel the limitation of one's own life in how one looks at others, even though we tend to be confident in our assessments of others. Piya truly sees Fakir in some ways, sure, a kinship through the river and animals. But she cannot begin to imagine his experiences... She cannot imagine a land where killing a tiger is not an act of human arrogance as development is, but an act of human self-defence, especially in lands as vulnerable as these islands... In the same way Kanai cannot really see Piya, even though his intensions are not bad, but he cannot see her as the parts that are undefinable until the very end.

I think the history and the research behind this book is remarkable, and I think some credit must go to Annu Jalais whose book "Forest of Tigers" I am going to read next! It was interesting to know the history of Port Canning also, and people ignoring the warnings of Lord Piddleton. What a dark, dark underbelly the "conservation" strategies of this country have had, a massacre on refugee Dalits from Bangladesh to protect forests and tigers, while at the same time we tear down villages and mountains with dams... It is a bit eerie, the scenes of the book from the 1960s to the 1980s perhaps, that mirrored 2020. A mass exodus of the dispossessed. State violence upon the most vulnerable. Cyclones and storms having wreaked havoc of coasts, and only brewing more these days. The book brings together the history of nature, poetry and geology with the history of land and people.

Mr. Amitav Ghosh, I know the world seems to think highly of your writing abilities but I am an exception. After reading this book I have not dared read another Indian Author for years. What were you thinking when you wrote this miserable book? Who is this written for? The hungry tide really?? A love story that doesn't take off, a tragedy that buzzes past you without touching any nerve, miserable style of writing. One book is enough to judge the author and this did it for me.