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Of the tide and the times

Writer Amitav Ghosh speaks about his work `The Hungry Tide' and his fascination for the Bay of Bengal

PHOTO: R. RAGU

SUCCESS AFTER THE STRUGGLE Amitav Ghosh

Two days after the December 2004 tsunami, Amitav Ghosh was in the Andamans to write about it. It was heart-rending for him to watch people "walk through the ruins, trying to pick up the threads of their lives."

In fact, Gopal Gandhi, Governor of West Bengal, had an interesting question for him — "Did you intuitively anticipate the tsunami?" — because his novel, `The Hungry Tide', had been in the market for only four months when the tsunami struck. The novel, which has the Sunderbans as its setting, ends with a cyclonic wave from the Bay of Bengal hitting the delta.

Curious questions from the literati and avid readers of his works, first at a book-reading session at Chennai , led the writer to share less known details surrounding `The Hungry Tide', his idea of what it means to be a Bengali, his fascination for the Bay of Bengal and his struggles as an aspiring writer.

If you are still thinking about it, his answer to Gandhi was in the negative. Ghosh did not foresee a tsunami, but when it happened, he realised what a boon the Sunderbans delta is to Bengal.

But for it, the State would have been devastated. Eyewitnesses told him how the giant waves would disperse powerlessly when they came against the mangrove forests; the numerous creeks acted as buffers against the pummelling waves.

The myth

In a sense, `The Hungry Tide' is a tribute to the largest mangrove forest in the world, where man and animal strike a balance. To make this point, Ghosh spoke about the origins of myths that he has woven into the narrative.

Bon Bibi (a Muslim lady who tamed the tiger demon Dhokkin Rai and in time came to be revered by the Hindus through ceremonies that melded local Bengali and Arabic traditions) partitioned one part of the forest for the people and another for the tiger.

"When people go into the forest, there is a kind of an invisible line they recognise. They know that on the other side of the line is the land of the tiger."

In the book, Ghosh does not portray the tiger as a predator, but "the possibility of getting killed by a tiger is ever present in the Sunderbans." He has come across people who've been struck dumb in the presence of the tiger. "To this day, they have not recovered their power of speech."

But it is also true that the fear they feel when confronted by the tiger is close to a mystical experience. For this reason, the tiger in these parts is a manifestation of the divine.

Another thing that fascinates Ghosh is the Bay of Bengal. "It is a sea of torment. Unlike the Arabian Sea, which is felicitous. The Bay of Bengal generates incredible cyclones" and plays a part in the lives of the people who live near it.

As the book is replete with great many things that belong to Bengal, Sunil Gangopadhyay called `The Hungry Tide' a Bengali novel in English. To a question if he can consider himself truly Bengali or Indian, because he lives elsewhere, he said that, "One of the things I treasure about being a Bengali is that nobody really knows what it means to be one. If you look at the earlier Bengali magazines, they were actually bilingual.

They were printed with English and Bengali side by side." Bengal has been a place for cultural negotiation — it has been a cradle for Buddhist thought and when the British came there was a profound engagement with Western ideas.

To a question, Ghosh said his first year as a writer was a debacle, and he persisted despite many odds. However, the successful writer says that if his children wanted to put themselves through the same ordeal, "I would do everything in my power to stop them."

Just three

Do you enjoy these reading sessions and the interaction it enables with your readers?

More than 20 years ago, when I started writing, there was no such thing as reading. Now, there are readings everyday. But there were readings abroad those days and may be you'd see one Indian face in the audience. Now wherever you do a reading, it's over 50 per cent Indians and I must say I find that rewarding. The whole culture of reading has assumed a new kind of urgency.

It's a completely different experience to be a writer now, because there is a difference in the reader now. Twenty years ago, you never had any direct contact with your audience. But now, young people come to you and say, `Your book changed my life, it meant so much to me...'

Your last piece of published writing was on the tsunami. What was it like?

It was completely devastating to see the impact of the tsunami on the Andamans, especially on the smaller islands. All public settlements had been wiped out. But you know, just a few weeks ago, I visited Phuket, which had been so badly affected. You can't see any trace of it now...the whole place is absolutely flourishing.

Have you gone back to the Andamans?

I travelled to the Andamans during the tsunami with actor Rahul Bose. He has gone there many times, at least once a month. He's been doing amazing work there.

SUBASH JEYAN

PRINCE FREDERICK

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