The Hungry Tide

Piya, sick of her seat “in the stuffiest part of the compartment” (8), flags down a tea seller. While on her way back to her seat, she accidentally spills her tea on Kanai’s papers. She apologizes, but he is not very gracious. He correctly deduces that she’s American, and, noting her surprise at his guess, explains he’s a translator with an affinity for accents. Piya tells him she’s a cetologist—a studier of marine mammals—and on her way to the Sundarbans to study the elusive dolphin population there. Few scientists have been able to secure the necessary permits, but Piya’s uncle is high up in the Indian government. Kanai takes a liking to Piya and invites her to seek him out in nearby Lusibari, where he will be visiting his aunt and reviewing some long-lost papers she found belonging to Kanai’s dead uncle. The train reaches Canning, the final station, and the two part ways.

As Kanai stands on the station platform, he thinks of his dead uncle, Nirmal. Shortly before he died, Nirmal had said he had writings to show Kanai, but “Nirmal had been incoherent for many months” (15). After his death, Kanai’s aunt, Nilima, had called and asked Kanai to visit soon. She had found a packet of papers labeled for Kanai—she assumed they were essays Nirmal had hoped to publish. Kanai sees his aunt waiting on a bench outside the station. As they proceed to Lusibari, it is revealed that his uncle had written the papers about the Sundarbans that Kanai was reading on the train. Nilima says she hasn’t opened the sealed packet Nirmal left for his nephew.

Kanai and his aunt travel through Canning, a bustling, crowded port town on the banks of the Matla River. Kanai remembers the Matla as a “vast waterway,” but it has become more like a “vast expanse of billowing mud” (21). Nilima explains that there is far less water coming into the river now—she is saddened by the sight of it. It was here on the banks that Nirmal was found, collapsed and “very erratic” (22), in the months leading up to his death. Kanai remembers his first look at the Matla, when he was sent to live with his aunt and uncle as a young boy.

Piya visits the Forest Department office in Canning, seeking a permit to explore the Sundarbans. Thanks to her uncle’s position, it is granted, but with the requirement that “she be accompanied by a forest guard” (26). This disappoints Piya, who sees escorts as a “hindrance” (26). The guide proves to be sneaky and underhanded, quoting Piya an exorbitant sum for a launch vessel to the take her to the islands. Piya reluctantly agrees, and she, the guide, and Mej-da, the owner of the launch vessel, travel to the launch point. During the ride, Piya reviews her research on the two species of river dolphins she intends to survey. When she shows a picture of the dolphin to Mej-da, he thinks it is a bird. They reach the boat, but the two men begin to act strangely and crudely. Piya knows that if she were a white woman—or even a refined, Indian-born woman—they would not treat her this way.

Kanai and Nilima arrive in Lusibari, the main village on a small island isolated by “four encircling rivers” (31). Kanai and his aunt enter the Hamilton family compound, passing the high school where Nirmal was once headmaster. The compound is a stately wooden building that overshadows the village’s typically small huts. Kanai enters through the back door and wanders the halls, remembering his uncle’s many lectures about the house and its history. The house was originally built for Lucy McKay Hamilton, the niece of a Scottish knight, but her ship capsized, and she never saw the house. Nonetheless, the town became known as Lusibari—Lucy’s House.

Piya and the two men search for dolphins. At one point, Mej-da exclaims that he’s seen one, but it turns out to be a false alarm, only “a group of crocodiles sunning themselves on a mudbank” (35). He demands a tip, which Piya refuses. She spots a fisherman—the first she’s seen all day—and decides to show him her picture of the dolphins, in the hope that he can point her in the right direction. She asks the guard and Mej-da to approach the boat. They do, but with a gun pointed at the fisherman and a little boy also on board. The fisherman tries to flee, just as Piya, now panicked, tries to halt Mej-da. The fisherman, she deduces, is working in an out of bounds area, and her guards want to collect bribe money. Piya shows the man the dolphin card, and he holds up six fingers. The guard, who is stealing money from the small child, interrupts them. Mej-da starts to turn the boat around. Feeling horrible, Piya tries to give some of her own money to the fisherman and the boy. The guard sees and attempts to stop her, but accidentally tips her overboard, where the “muddy brown water was rushing up to meet her face” (41).

Kanai remembers the story of Sir Daniel Hamilton, Lucy Hamilton’s uncle. He was born in Scotland and sought his fortune in India, selling tickets on shipping vessels. Having amassed a fortune, Daniel set his sights on the Sundarbans. He wondered why no one lived there or cultivated the earth. Although he was told that the inhabitants “were driven away by tempests and tides” (42), he didn’t care, buying thousands of acres of land. Daniel set up many little towns, often named after relatives, and people flocked there, enticed by the promise of cheap land. Daniel tried to build a world where “people could live together without petty social distinctions and differences” (45), Nirmal had once explained to Kanai. And yet, Kanai notes, that dream came to nothing.

In the water, with “breath running out,” Piya is “enveloped inside a cocoon of eerily glowing murk” (46). The fisherman, who has jumped in to rescue her, drags her head and arms out of the water. They are far from the boat and she feels him “straining for each inch, as though he were dragging her up a steep slope” (47). They make it to the boat, and he gives her mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. The guard and Mej-da yell at her from their vessel—it is getting dark and they need to get back to shore. Piya does not want to get back on the boat with them. She is weak and vulnerable, and wonders what they might do to her in this state. She asks the fisherman if he knows Lusibari, and he nods. She pays the guard and Mej-da for their services, then gets on the fisherman’s boat. She will stay with him, and he will take her to Lusibari.

Kanai and Nilima journey to the other end of the island, where Nilima lives in a small building within a larger compound dedicated to the local hospital, which she has run for years. Kanai will stay in the guesthouse and will be looked after by a trainee nurse named Moyna. Moyna’s husband, Kanai learns, is a fisherman named Fokir. He has gone missing—again—along with their young son. Fokir himself is the son of Kusum, Kanai’s childhood playmate, an orphaned girl rescued from a life of certain prostitution. She has been dead for many years. They reach the hospital and Nilima explains that Kanai must be in his room at 9 p.m.--that is when the hospital’s generator is shut off, and the entire island is without electricity.

The fisherman introduces himself to Piya. His name is Fokir, and his young son is named Tutul. The little boy is kind to her, which makes Piya feel vulnerable and grateful. Piya decides she must repay their kindness. She opens her wallet and the two stare, transfixed—“they had never before been in the proximity of so large a sum of money” (54). Piya offers Fokir what she considers a small sum, but he takes only one note before returning the rest. He repeats the word “Lusibari” as he does. She understands. He will accept the rest of the payment once they reach the island.