The Hungry Tide - Amitav Ghosh

A journey often cannot be described in words, especially a literary journey. Often, I refer Amitav Ghosh as “Literary Entertainer”. Though apart from this book, I have only read his “The Glass Palace”, but within these two books itself he has taken me into the unknown world of many facets of human survival and stories from the last eight decades and sometimes beyond. “The Hungry Tide” is a book which surprises you not only on account of its indepthful research and beautiful prose, but on account of the ability with which Ghosh links the metaphor of human lives with that of nature and environment.

Travel narrative is surely Ghosh’s forte. With an amazing accumulation of beautiful alphabets into words further aggregating into sentences, Ghosh takes us to a world which exists in so much of reality but is so distant from ourselves.  With the entanglements of various characters of Nirmal, Nilima, Kanhai, Piya Roy, Horen, Fokir, Kusum, the story is set into motion which serves also as an interesting knowledge on Sunderbans, the vast intermittently submerged archipelago. As a reader, what really interested me with respect to the characters were the bifurcations of a particular set of people from other. Some were so simple and relatable, while the others were so complex and unheard of.

The various geographical characteristics of the region have been beautifully linked to the underlying purpose of the story. The story and its major part is more about the entire setting and historical significance of the region. From the myths to the cries to the settlements, we get to know so much about a region which is not far from us but yet we know so little about. The places which link the various threads of the story have its own significance to the entire narrative. Dhakuria, Canning, Sunderbans, Gorjontola, Lusibari, are all very beautifully woven into the narrative along with their historical past.

I hardly had any idea about the behavioural pattern of Dolphins before I read this book. “Orcaella Dolphins or Orcaella Brevirostris, a breed of fresh water dolphins, have been very beautifully woven into the story. It seemed that perhaps they had their own story to tell. A Great mix of poetry, science, geography and excellent literary skill, “The Hungry Tide” is a journey not to be missed. There are lovable characters, there are amazing mythical stories, there are beautiful poetries, there are enchanting conversations, there is history and above all there is life, life of which we understand so little!