The Hungry Tide Quotes
"Language was both his livelihood and his addiction, and he was often preyed upon by a near-irresistible compulsion to eavesdrop on conversations in public places."
"Her face was long and narrow, with an elegance of line markedly at odds with the severity of her haircut."
"There is no prettiness here to invite the stranger in: yet to the world at large this archipelago is known as the Sundarbans, which means 'the beautiful forest.'"
"The tides reach as far as two hundred miles inland and every day thousands of acres of forest disappear underwater, only to reemerge hours later."
"Every year, dozens of people perish in the embrace of that dense foliage, killed by tigers, snakes, and crocodiles."
"In our legends it is said that the goddess Ganga’s descent from the heavens would have split the earth had Lord Shiva not tamed her torrent by tying it into his ash-smeared locks."
"To look upon this strange parturition, midwifed by the moon, is to know why the name 'tide country' is not just right but necessary."
"People wouldn’t exploit each other and everyone would have a share in the land."
"It wasn’t safe for her on her own. All kinds of people tried to take advantage of her."
"The speciality of mangroves is that they do not merely recolonize land; they erase time."
"Life’s most important lesson is 'labor conquers everything,' even rocks and stones if need be — even mud."
"This was at a time when people were so desperate for land that they were willing to sell themselves in exchange for a bigha or two."
"The words could have been written by Marx himself: it is just the labor theory of value."
"He dreamed of a place where men and women could be farmers in the morning, poets in the afternoon, and carpenters in the evening."
"Don't laugh, Kanai — it was just that the tide country wasn't ready yet. Someday, who knows? It may yet come to be."
"In the clear waters of the open sea the light of the sun wells downward from the surface in an inverted cone that ends in the beholder’s eye."
"With no lighted portal to point the way, top and bottom and up and down become very quickly confused."
"Her body began to twitch convulsively, and she tried to look over her shoulder, but could see nothing except that impenetrable sepia glow."
"The stinging seemed to clear her mind and she forced herself to loosen her panicked muscles, calming her body to the point where he could begin to swim."
"The abruptness of this summons made Piya’s hackles rise."
"The broadest of these paths were even paved with bricks and shaded with rows of casuarina trees."
"Life in Lusibari was lived at the sufferance of a single feature of its topography."
"Beauty's nothing but the start of terror we can hardly bear, and we adore it because of the serene scorn it could kill us with."
"The thought of this, along with the fear that preceded it, has made it possible for me to do what I have not been able to for the last thirty years — to put my pen to paper again."
"He had probably never met anyone like her before, any more than she had ever met anyone like him."
"It was as if the light of idealism in his eye were a flame and she a moth."
"How was it possible that these islands were a mere sixty miles from home and yet so little was known about them?"
"They had not expected a utopia, but neither had they expected such destitution."
"Making inquiries, she learned that in the tide country girls were brought up on the assumption that if they married, they would be widowed in their twenties — their thirties if they were lucky."
"It did not matter what they were; what mattered was that they should not remain what they were."
"Badabon was a word Nirmal loved... It is as though the word itself were an island, born of the meeting of two great rivers of language."
"How do you lose a word? Does it vanish into your memory, like an old toy in a chest, and lie hidden in the cobwebs and dust, waiting to be cleaned out or rediscovered?"
"Their voices had a way of finding her, no matter how well she hid."
"The accumulated resentments of their life were always phrased in that language, so that for her its sound had come to represent the music of unhappiness."
"But a door was no defense against her parents’ voices: it was in that language that they fought, and the sounds of their quarrels would always find ways of trickling in under the door and through the cracks, the level rising until she thought she would drown in the flood."
"Thus did Bon Bibi show the world the law of the forest, which was that the rich and greedy would be punished while the poor and righteous were rewarded."
"The terror he had felt when the demon charged Dukhey was real and immediate, even though there was nothing convincing about the tiger."
"No less real were the tears of joy and gratitude that flowed from his eyes when Bon Bibi appeared at Dukhey’s side."
"But the flow of the story was such that none of this seemed to matter, and even before the performance had ended Kanai knew he wanted to see it again."
"The audience had actually had to hurry her along, because as Dukhey lay unconscious with the tiger poised to devour him, she had stopped to lean over the side of the stage in order to clear her mouth of a great wad of paan."
"It was a special event, and many people came in from other islands."
"She was so rapt by the performance that she seemed oblivious of his presence."
"In the reflected glow of the gas lamps, that she was biting her lip and her face was streaked with tears."
"The shock sparked by this contact passed through both of them like a bolt of electricity."
"Suppressing a cry, she jumped to her feet and went stumbling into the darkness."
"He waited a minute or two and then pretended to head in the other direction."
"She came to a halt and he steeled himself for a flood of reproach."
"Her grief sprang from a much deeper source than could be plumbed by a boy’s mistaken touch."
"From this position they had a clear view of the maidan, and they could even see Dukhey lying prone on the stage, beseeching Bon Bibi to save him."
"The day my father died. I saw it all, it happened in front of me, and I called her again and again …"
"He wanted to fold her in his arms, to ward off her grief; he wanted to wipe away her tears."
"Suddenly they heard the sound of running feet, flying up the teak stairs."
"And as for you, little babu — if you tell anyone where she’s gone, or with whom, you won’t be safe either."
"A restless, scraping, scratching noise was echoing through the timber, percolating up from the boat’s bowels."
"It was as though she were a giant listening to the stirrings of a subterranean city."
"It warmed her to think of him sitting there, keeping watch as she and Tutul slept."
"The memory caused a tremor to shake her body."
"His salty, sun-soaked smell was in her nostrils now, and through the blanket that separated them she could feel the sharpness of his ribs."
"She wished she could think of a way to let him know it was all right — nothing had been misunderstood, no wrong had been done."
"It was the exclusion of intimate involvements that made a place into a field and the line between the two was marked by a taboo she could not cross except at the risk of betraying her vocation."
"She had been sent to the Sundarbans for a fortnight to do a small survey on a shoestring budget — but to follow through on the questions now buzzing in her head would take not a week or two but years, even decades."
"This proliferation of environments was responsible for creating and sustaining a dazzling variety of aquatic life forms — from gargantuan crocodiles to microscopic fish."
"She had never had high aspirations for herself as a scientist."
"She would not need to apologize for how she had spent her time on this earth."
"After all, he was very little when she died."
"In this tide country setting where mud and mildew encrusted everything, the building’s crisp lines and fresh paint were enough to give it the exclamatory salience of a skyscraper."
"With every step her carriage seemed to become a little straighter and her movements more assured."
"Every patient who came to the hospital made it a point to leave an offering at their door — a coconut, a few kewra fruit, a fish wrapped in leaves, sometimes a live chicken or two."
"I don’t want him growing up catching crabs. Where’s the future in that?"
"Mashima wanted to get the nets banned, but it was impossible."
"It’s people like us who’re going to suffer and it’s up to us to think ahead."
"I’ve tried so many times. But what does he understand? He’s illiterate — it’s impossible to explain these things to him."
"This made it seem all the more unfortunate that someone with Moyna’s talents should be held back by a husband who could not keep up."
"All I could think of was how fortunate they were and how much I wanted to be one of them."
"The kind of tenderness we sometimes feel when we come across childhood pictures of ourselves."
"The propensity to play with prey was a family trait — Orcaella shared it with its relative the killer whale."
"It was the only way she could discover whether there was any truth to her intuition that these dolphins had adapted their behavior to suit the ebb and flow of the water."
"Their chests were moving in unison as they slept and the rhythm of their breathing reminded her of the pair of dolphins she had been watching earlier."
"It was a long time since Kanai had eaten simple Bengali food and the tastes seemed to explode in his head."
"The true tragedy of a routinely spent life is that its wastefulness does not become apparent till it is too late."
"Fokir won’t do that; he’ll be off on his own somewhere without another human being in sight."
"It doesn’t matter how many languages you know. You’re not a woman and you don’t know him. You won’t understand."
"What greater happiness could there be than this: to be on the water with someone you trusted at this magical hour, listening to the serene sound of these animals?"
"The thought of experiencing your surroundings in that way never failed to fascinate her: the idea that to 'see' was also to 'speak' to others of your kind, where simply to exist was to communicate."
"It was a family like those she had heard her father talk about, in which want and deprivation made people pull together all the more tightly."
"Each slow turn of the world carries such disinherited ones to whom neither the past nor the future belongs."
"To sing about someone you love is one thing; but, oh, the blood’s hidden guilty river-god is something else."
"There’s only one thing I know to do. And that is to teach."
"You are indeed in the right place. But tell me — who are you? Do I know you?"
"I’d never have been able to find you on my own."
"And it wasn’t just that — he also led me straight to a pod of dolphins."
"How better can we praise the world but by doing what the Poet would have us do."
"We’re not comfortably at home in our translated world."
"To build something is not the same as dreaming of it. Building is always a matter of well-chosen compromises."
"His knowledge can be of help to a scientist like myself."
"You live in a dream world — a haze of poetry and fuzzy ideas about revolution."
"I will fight for it like a mother fights to protect her children."
"These islands had seen so much suffering, so much hardship and poverty, so many catastrophes, so many failed dreams."
"It was as if he were saying to me: some mute animal raising its calm eyes and seeing through us, and through us. This is destiny..."
"The fear that protects you, Saar; it's what keeps you alive. Without it the danger doubles."