The Village by the Sea (A Puffin Book)

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When he gets home, he finds that his mother’s condition has improved and that his father is slowly beginning to recover from his alcoholism. He starts a small business raising animals and thinks about using what he learned from Mr. Panwallah to open his own watch repair shop in the village. The story ends on a hopeful note with the family’s situation finally beginning to improve. The reflection of the society, painted through the book is not a pretty one. Yet it stands true till date. The author has managed to capture the very essence of a village life in India. Extreme poverty, poor health care system and below average education rate is not really encouraging, rather it was pretty depressing. Child labour, represented through Hari while he worked at the restaurant in Mumbai alongside other boys, is another harsh truth of our country. The difference between Urban India and Rural India and between the rich and the poor is accentuated at various points. Also the attitude of the city people and the villagers, towards each other, felt so completely appalling even though somewhere in my heart I knew it was true. I would have loved if the characters were more fleshed out. I didn't feel like I had full access to Hari or Lila's mindset. Maybe it was the writing but I felt like I was quite distanced from them. Obviously I sympathised with them but I think Anita Desai could have done a better job with making her characters more authentic. All of the characters felt very watered-down and that was disappointing. Hari spends more time watching the construction of the new boat than fishing or working in the fields. The wood smells different and good. Biju brags that it will have a deep freezer and a diesel engine, to keep the fish “fresh” until they can be sold in Bombay. Ramu and Hari don’t know whether to believe Biju or not. Ramu thinks that the boat is just a boat, and will not survive the monsoon season or bring a profit to Biju, who is spending a tremendous amount of money on it. Ramu would rather have a job with daily wages than gamble on a fancy boat that may or may not succeed.

The wheel turns as Mr. Panwallah said it would. Hari works hard and spends less time in the eating house. The rains slow. Hari never does go to the de Silvas’ house; he is no longer a frightened and confused boy, and is figuring out his own life. During the monsoon season, things are tough in Thul as well. Try as they might, the girls cannot keep water out of the hut. Fires are smoky and the huts are damp. There is no fish for the village. The Village by the Sea: an Indian family story is a novel for young people by the Indian writer Anita Desai, published in London by Heinemann in 1982. It is based on the poverty, hardships and sorrow faced by a small rural, community in India. Desai won the annual Guardian Children's Fiction Prize, a book award judged by a panel of British children's writers. [2] It has 13 chapters. Jagu’s wife begins to mumble that men can go out and get drunk but women can do nothing but lie down and sleep. Hari haltingly tells her that his father drinks too. She is sympathetic now, and asks if he beats his wife. Hari nods and coughs. She sighs that tomorrow they will get him some medicine.The factory man begins to cause a stir when he tells Hari and other villagers about the major changes the fertilizer factory will bring: jobs for skilled people, land set aside for houses for the thousands who will flood in, the removal of rice and other crops, etc. This causes consternation among the villagers and soon a protest begins to form. A group of men led by the charismatic Adarkar decides to go to Bombay to speak with the government. Their situation changes a bit when the de Silva family comes into the village. They are a rich family who vacation at their seaside home several times a year, and they always employ the children. Lila and Hari start helping them and become their servants. After finding out about their situation, Mr. de Silva offers Hari a job in Bombay as a car washer. Coconut Day arrives and the sea is calm, the clouds puffy, the sights and smells sweet. Bombay seems like a fairground, and Mr. Panwallah and Hari enjoy the day together. Thousands of coconuts bob in the sea where the people tossed them, and Hari fights the traditional fight for one. He emerges from the water, dripping, and Mr. Panwallah warmly tells him he is a real city boy and he will not worry about him. Analysis The Village by the Sea is a young adult novel written by Indian writer Anita Desai. The novel was first published in London in 1982, while the U.S. version of the book was released in 1984. The book tells the story of two Indian siblings, Lila and Hari, as they try to improve life for their impoverished family. The novel won the Guardian Children’s Fiction Prize, a British book award, in 1983.

Also, I have to admit that a huge amount of credit should go to the author for venturing towards a path few had trodden upon. This book was published in 1982 when ‘Indian Writing in English’ was not such a common thing. Sure, there had been the likes of R.K.Narayan who had already published a few of his works, and Salman Rushdie’s ‘Midnight’s Children’ had already been out, but it was not as common as it is now. Very few people were actually aware and even those aware would criticize the authors for not writing in their native language. It was in the 80’s that few prominent authors gave the push that Indian English Literature needed – Anita Desai being one of them. Despite Desai’s dissatisfaction with how she altered or embellished the real-life experiences of the family, the novel doesn’t avoid or dramatically mitigate the suffering the children feel and endure. She wants to show the changes occurring in India and how real people are affected, especially children. She explains what suffering is like in India to provide context for her literary aims: “Life is extremely brutal in India as it is in most countries. But most countries are very much better at obscuring the brutality, at veiling it so that one is only intermittently aware of the horrors. I think what's so overpowering about India is that all the human experiences which we surely share wherever we live, all over the world are all on the surface. Nothing screens them from your view. You feel exhausted and battered by all that India throws at you. At the same time it's extremely honest, it's extremely open, and it's extremely basic. If brutality and harshness are so obvious in India, so are affection and family ties and friendships. They're heightened, too, in India. They're also very much more open and vivid. And I suppose they're what makes life wonderfully livable there: the warmth and the color and the exuberance one misses elsewhere.” Later that day, they are finishing up their work on a Japanese watch when the customer comes in to pay for it. Mr. Panwallah tells him to give the money to Hari, who did all the work. Hari is stunned, and says he will buy his family presents. As adults, we have become quite sceptical even when there are situations we can easily extend help.

Summary

The first time i read this book was at school. It was our literature book in Grade 8. I thought oh no heres another boring literature book and i started reading it. But i was wrong. :)