February 23, 2015 - 23:57
For me, the beginning sections of The Hungry Tide reminded me a lot of two things, the first being other books I've read where there are people who are considered foreigners in the environment, and two, of my life. Not my entire life - just bits and pieces of it. When Kanai describes the ease with with Piya (who he considers to be a foreigner) is able to navigate the train station and the train itself reminds me a lot of how I used to travel (occasionally) when I was in India. It's always incredibly surprising to other people when someone who not only looks like a compltete outsider, but also speaks like one, is able to navigate the country they're in with ease. It reminded me of how shocked people always were when I could switch between English and Kannada (language of the state my family is from in India) when talking between friends and an rickshaw driver.
On the otherhand, the stubbornness of Piya and her skepticism with a lot of things made me think of one book in particular: A Passage to India, by E.M. Forster. I'm not sure why, but in this course in particular, I've found I've been able to make a lot connections between the readings and this book. In this case, there was one character I found held many similarities to Piya. In A Passage to India, Adele is a young woman who travels from England to 'experience' India for what she believes it to be. Both she and Piya seem to have a sort of excitement and expectation for the outcome of their journey. Also, the writing style is quite similar in that both Amitav Ghosh and Forster describe the setting in the first paragraph of a section and continue directly into the narrative part of it.
Overall, this section made me think a lot more about the similarities between writings of such differing time periods and also how easily connections can be made between fictional and real life.