The Hungry Tide by Amitav Ghosh
characters:
Kanai Dutt - translator, founder and CEO of his own business serving expats in New Delhi
Piya (Piyali Roy) - cetologist, American born in Calcutta
Mashima (Nilima Bose) - Kanai's aunt in Lusibari, founded the hospital in Lusibari and heads the Badabon trust, which funds it
Saar (Nirmal Bose) - Mashima's husband, dead
Horen Naskor - manfisher
Kusum - Horen's wife
forest guard
Mej-da - boat owner, friend of the forest guard
Part One - The Ebb: Bhata
THE TIDE
Kanai is in a south Kolkata commuter station when he sees an androgynous looking girl and takes an interest in her. She seems to him Indian only by descent and it is unusual even for tourists traveling to the Sundarbans to get there by this commuter train. She gets on the same train he does. He is visibly higher class than those around him, and when he asks an older man with a newspaper to give him the window seat so he can read, the man agrees.
The text Kanai reads describes the Sundarbans as, according to legend, formed from the end of Lord Shiva's braid. The region is made up of large and tiny islands that are constantly reshaped by the tide and covered in mangroves.
AN INVITATION
Twenty minutes out of Kolkata, Piya (Piyali Roy) gets a window seat across from Kanai, whose air of superiority she has noticed. She buys some tea from a vendor outside the train and Kanai knocks her hand as she is pulling it in, causing her to spill some on his papers. He is less than gracious, but she placates him by feigning amazement that he knows she is American, and they talk. She tells him that she is here to study marine mammals, which have disappeared from view recently although there used to be many, that it is hard to get permits but that she has an uncle in the government in Kolkata who may be able to help. He tells her that he is a translator on his way to Lusibari to see an aunt. "'You'd be surprised how many places in the Sundarbans have names that come from English,' Kanai said. 'Lusibari just means "Lucy's House"'" (12). Kanai has only been to Lusibari once as a punishment for misbehaving in school, and is returning now to look over some papers that his uncle Saar left when he died. The train arrives in Canning.
CANNING
(late november) Kanai has recently been left by a woman and is interested in Piya as a nice fling that he can start and then end when he leaves in nine days. The first time Kanai had been to Canning he had remarked on how many people there were and Nirmal had replied, "It is only in films, you know, that jungles are empty of people" (15). His aunt Nilima meets him in Canning and she mentions that since the river has changed since he came last, it would have been easier to come through Bastoni. The paper he has been reading on the train are his uncle's, but not a part of the packet he had left for Kanai and asked his wife not to open.
Nilima and Kanai go to the pier and he sees how the once-vast river has diminished in this place. Nilima tells Kanai about the end of Nirmal's life - he had retired as headmaster and his behavior had been erratic for some months after that. He was found at the port of Canning where he contracted pneumonia, and he died a couple months later.
THE LAUNCH
Piya goes to the Forest Department Office in Canning for her permits, and is saddled with a forrest guard as a companion, and then forced to pay too much to hire a boat from his friend Mej-da. Piya carries cards with her for communication, and when she shows the dolphin she's looking for to the boat-owner he interprets it as a bird. The is not thrilled about his large boat or the fact that he has his crew leave it to just Piya, the forest guard and himself.
LUSIBARI
Kanai and Nilima arrive in Lusibari. When he enters the house alone, Kanai remembers Nirmal's voice answering his questions.
THE FALL
Piya is looking for dolphins and finding nothing when she sees a fisherman. Mej-da reluctantly agrees to bring her to the fisherman, who she sees is with a boy. The fisherman is frightened and rows to escape because, as he knows and Piya does not, he is fishing in an off-limits area and the forest guard will fine him or make him pay a bribe. To Piya's surprise, the fisherman says that he has seen not the Gangetic dolphin she expected but the more rare Irrawaddy dolphin Orcaella brevirostris. The forest guard takes the fisherman's money and when Piya tosses him some of her own, the forest guard upsets her chair and so dumps her into the water.
S'DANIEL
Kanai remembers a conversation with Nirmal in which his uncle tells him about Sir Daniel Hamilton, who had seen the tide country islands and realized their worth.