Sea of Poppies----Amithav Ghosh

Amithav ghosh was born in Calcutta. He debuted with his novel “The circle of reason”. It was followed by “The shadow lines”, “the Culcatta chromosome”, “the glass palace”, “the hungry tide and “the sea of poppies”. He has also written non- fiction works such as “the antique land, dancing in cambodia and at large in burma, countdown, the imam and the Indian.

The book “sea of poppies” is the first book of Ibis trilogy. Its followed by the second book “the river of smoke”

The language of the novel is sometimes difficult to understand. Use of Hindi and Bhojpuri mixed English is funny. But difficulty arises as it is typed in English. It results in loss of interest at times. Every character seems to have an unhappy past and is united in the slave ship. The book has an apt title as most characters seem to be addicts or are surrounded by addicts. The poppy fields are compared to a sea which tries to drown everyone who enters it either as an addict or in the miseries. Ibis can be seen as a rescue ship which everyone tries to enter to escape the wrath of the sea. And true to its words people try to escape in the Ibis to new land and to new life. At the end of the book it looks like they are almost successful but the next book will show the reality.

One of the main character Deeti's portrayal is perfectly unreal where she sees images of things that is about to occur in which she will be a part in the future. She even has visions of the people who will be in her future. She is a fine portrayal of an 18th century housewife. She puts up with an addict husband and survives the tortures of her in-laws. The character portrayal vacillates between a strong determined woman to a weak woman who accepts her fate and chooses to die. The difficulty she lives through is a portrayal of women in those times. In her second life, as she believes it to be, she is determined to live a strong determined life.

One curious fact i observed in the book is that when a person normally has a dream or a vision of strange things, the person remembers it and when such a vision comes in reality in front of the person there is a real shock or surprise. But in the book we see that Deeti does not show any such expression when she sees the ship. We will expect her to remember her vision but no such thing happens. She just gets into it.

The sudden love she feels for Kalua is unexpressive. She has always seen him as a lower caste ox man but suddenly after he rescued her she fell in love with him. She seems to have no confusion or doubts. It looks like that she has been in love with him and when the time came she accepted it happily. The author could have dealt a little more on the confusion she might have faced or how she made up her decision.

The second characterization and story I liked best is that of the Raja Neel. In the place where the raja realizes that he has not changed even after touching the pan and broom for cleaning the cell in which he and Ah Fatt stays. That realization is like an ultimate thing in his life, that which all strive and yearn to get it. What he had known and assumed so far in life was all a myth. It was a sense of distorted reality but now he is in the present and realizing and living every bit of it. While so far in life he lived a life of rituals and customs passed down the generation after being imprisoned he learns truths and ways by living.

Another character Paulette is a French girl. Her character exposes the foreign nationals who are in love with India and its culture. She could disguise so well as an Indian that she was travelling with a whole group of laborers in the ship. The reason Paulette gives for trying to escape comes out of no where. Normally a reader would assume that its because of the fact that Burnham’s are trying to get her married to a wealthy middle aged man. But the crazy reality of Mr. Burnham is given as a reason by Paulette. It’s funny the way she describes his behaviour.

Zachary Reid’s brings in the differences that exist in other parts of the world. In India he was seen as a foreigner and seen as a master but in his own land he will be seen as a black. He is a very caring gentleman.

The book brings out the reality of Indian living. From the story of Raja Neel we see that Indians lived just on the basis of trust. Even though the opium trades of a big business they dint quite understand the professionalism in trade and commerce. They signed papers and bonds based on trust. This was in most case the unfortunate event that slowly brought the Britishers to gain more and more wealth in India.

A new introduction and new story towards the end of the book for Ah fatt and Serang ali is quite heavy. Some questions about Reid's personality and his background are left unanswered. May be he has dealt with it in other books. There are many characters and too many stories. Stories were felt left behind without a proper flow or conclusion.  

The author has done extensive research to know the languages and dialects of many different kinds of people. The English as well as the Bengali way of life in the city and in the villages are beautifully portrayed. The India we see in the book is the changing world where modernization is taking place in the cities with western way of life. We see the start of migration to cities. The villages live behind by decades some even centuries. In the villages it’s still the age of superstitious heinous customs like sati.