Book Review : The village by the sea

The village by the sea by Anita Desai
Book review - July 29, 2007

As I read the words in the last paragraph of the book, it was an hour past mid-night and I felt as if the dawn was breaking and sun-shine trickling through the glass panes of my window. The book was casting its spell.

The village by the sea is a timeless story of transition, of transformation. The author declares it to be a true story and those who have seen India through her villages will concede to the poignancy. The story is about a family of six in a coastal village (by the name – Thul) in Maharastra, some 17 kms by sea from the port city of Mumbai.  The villagers survive by selling fish caught from the sea and coconuts from the trees sprinkled on the coastline. With time, catching fish meant going deep into the sea and with their primitive fragile boats, the fishermen were at the mercy of weather Gods. There was food stock enough to feed the local population but not enough money to buy them.

Lila, her two sisters – Bela and Kamal, and her brother – Hari, lived in abject poverty. Walled inside a thatched hut was their mother ill with fever for many days now and her father, a regular to the village toddy shop who drank by the night and slept whole day. They had sparse agricultural land to feed the family, and Lila and her brother Hari had to give up school to attend to the family. Lila did all the household work, while Bela and Kamal went to village school and Hari – went searching for work that could bring some income to the family.

The village was capsuled in its own happy and sad adventures, when news broke that government would set up a huge fertilizer plant and village lands would be consumed into factory and colonies for its workers. The unemployed youth in the village, who thrived neither on fishing, nor had their lands saw opportunity to find stable employment. Hari saw hope in the factory while those with fishing boats and acres of land sensed threat. With diminishing income and inability to afford medical attention for their ailing mother, the family was slipping into greater crisis everyday. To bail the family out, Hari dreamt of leaving for Mumbai to find work or to take up work in a newly built large boat of a rich fisherman. Agitation was brewing in the neighboring villages on the proposed factory and its impact on environment and livelihood of the villagers. Spearheaded by the local MLA, villagers decided to visit the Chief Minister and repeal the factory decision. Villagers in hundreds took a day off and headed for Mumbai in their boats – Hari, ran away from home in one of these boats! Lila was left alone to survive the family.

The journey from here was one of transformation. Lila rose to be the cornerstone of the family. Hari – found employment but he earned important lessons as he adapted to a difficult life in the metropolis. Touched by the pain and the distance of his wife, (after she was admitted into the district hospital) their father quit drinking and spent all his time in the hospital beside his wife. The sisters found temporary job as help, to a wealthy businessman who visited his holiday home on vacation with family.

The undertone of change and adapting to change set against a difficult life of a poor family in a village, caught between its loyalty to age-old means of survival and their resistance to Govt’s decision for the fertilizer factory, is intense and leaves a deep impression. The family reunited on Diwali and the metaphorical connection with the “festival of lights” is profound. Hari returned to his village because he had answers. To survive his family he set up a poultry business and did not have to run away from home. Their father, a drunkard quit drinking when he did not find his wife one evening. He cried for his wife and did not leave her for a moment. Lila stood firm by her sisters and family- with and without Hari.

There are challenges in our personal lives and also in our environment. Challenges arise out of changes. And the living world has survived by not fighting the change or escaping from it, rather adapting to it. The answers are not far.

An old Parsee, a watchmender who had shop alongside the eating house, where Hari worked drove home this useful lesson, “You can find work anywhere. As long as you can use your hands, you can find work for them. And you have to be willing to learn – and to change – and to grow. If they take away your land you will have to learn to work in their factory instead. If you can’t stop it, you must learn to use it – don’t be afraid!”

He also taught Hari, the rare art of watchmending and he could mend a Rolex.