The Hungry Tide

The Hungry Tide

by

Amitav Ghosh

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Nilima Bose Character Analysis

Nilima, who is known simply as Mashima (Aunt) on Lusibari, is Kanai's aunt and Nirmal's wife. Nilima grew up wealthy in Calcutta and met Nirmal while in college in the late 1940s. She was so taken with him, they married within a year against her family's wishes. Though Nilima appears to have shared Nirmal's love for Communist theory in their youth, she's soon forced to face the consequences of relying so heavily on theory: Nirmal suffers a mental breakdown after being arrested for his involvement in a Socialist International conference and later, she watches Nirmal do nothing with his life except fixate on theory. Nilima, on the other hand, throws herself into helping the local women after discovering that women in the Sundarbans expect to be widowed in their twenties. In a matter of years, Nilima forms a Women's Union and the Babadon Trust, which provides a number of important services to the people of Lusibari and the surrounding islands. Nirmal is dismissive of her work, given that Nilima must compromise her morals in exchange for funding from the government. Then, when Nirmal Nirmal becomes involved in the Morichjhãpi incident, it is Nilima who is scornful. In the present, Nilima remains extremely disturbed by Nirmal's death twenty years earlier, and she's even more upset as she wonders why Nirmal left his notebook to Kanai instead of to her. Though she loves Kanai, she also views him as a spoiled and self-centered man who preys on women. At the end of the novel, Nilima accepts Piya's plan to develop a conservation and research plan based in Lusibari because Piya wants to both provide funding for the Babadon Trust and work with the locals.

Nilima Bose Quotes in The Hungry Tide

The The Hungry Tide quotes below are all either spoken by Nilima Bose or refer to Nilima Bose. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Language Theme Icon
).
Part 1: The Trust Quotes

But these elements of an ordinary rural existence did not entirely conceal the fact that life in Lusibari was lived at the sufferance of a single feature of its topography. This was its bãdh, the tall embankment that encircled its perimeter, holding back the twice-daily flood.

Related Characters: Kanai Dutt, Nilima Bose
Page Number: 50
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 1: The Letter Quotes

There is nothing I can do to stop what lies ahead. But I was once a writer; perhaps I can make sure at least that what happened here leaves some trace, some hold upon the memory of the world. 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 do for the last thirty years—to put my pen to paper again.

Related Characters: Nirmal Bose (speaker), Kanai Dutt, Nilima Bose
Page Number: 59
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 1: Nirmal and Nilima Quotes

It shamed them to think that this man—a foreigner, a burra sahib, a rich capitalist—had taken it upon himself to address the issue of rural poverty when they themselves, despite all their radical talk, had scarcely any knowledge of life outside the city.

Related Characters: Nirmal Bose, Nilima Bose, Sir Daniel Hamilton
Page Number: 66
Explanation and Analysis:

But for these women the imagining of early widowhood was not a wasted effort: the hazards of life in the tide country were so great; so many perished in their youth, men especially, that almost without exception the fate that they had prepared themselves for did indeed befall them.

Related Characters: Nirmal Bose, Nilima Bose
Related Symbols: Tigers
Page Number: 68
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 1: Moyna Quotes

"Why else?" she said. "Because there's a lot of money in prawns and the traders had paid off the politicians. What do they care—or the politicians, for that matter? It's people like us who're going to suffer and it's up to us to think ahead."

Related Characters: Moyna (speaker), Kanai Dutt, Nilima Bose, Fokir, Tutul
Page Number: 112
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 2: A Feast Quotes

I was tempted to tell him what I thought of him, but it struck me with great force that I had no business to be self-righteous about these matters. Nilima—she had achieved a great deal. What had I done? What was the work of my life? I tried to find an answer but none would come to mind.

Related Characters: Nirmal Bose (speaker), Nilima Bose, Kusum
Page Number: 160
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 2: Habits Quotes

"Nirmal, you have no idea of what it takes to do anything practical," she said. "You live in a dream world—a haze of poetry and fuzzy ideas about revolution. To build something is not the same as dreaming it. Building is always a matter of well-chosen compromises."

Related Characters: Nilima Bose (speaker), Nirmal Bose, Kusum
Related Symbols: Cyclone Shelter
Page Number: 178
Explanation and Analysis:

The sight was almost unbearable for me at the moment; I felt myself torn between my wife and the woman who had become the muse I'd never had; between the quiet persistence of everyday change and the heady excitement of revolution—between prose and poetry.

Most haunting of all, was I overreaching myself even in conceiving of these confusions? What had I ever done to earn the right to address such questions?

Related Characters: Nirmal Bose (speaker), Nilima Bose, Kusum
Page Number: 180
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 2: A Post Office on Sunday Quotes

"He loved the work of Rainer Maria Rilke […] Rilke said 'life is lived in transformation,' and I think Nirmal soaked this idea into himself in the way cloth absorbs ink. To him, what Kusum stood for was the embodiment of Rilke's idea of transformation."

Related Characters: Kanai Dutt (speaker), Piya Roy, Nirmal Bose, Nilima Bose, Kusum
Page Number: 233
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 2: The Wave Quotes

"Yes," said Nilima. "Making us build it was probably the most important thing he did in his whole life. You can see the proof of that today. But if you'd told him that, he'd have laughed. He'd have said, 'It's just social service—not revolution.'"

Related Characters: Nilima Bose (speaker), Kanai Dutt, Nirmal Bose
Related Symbols: Cyclone Shelter
Page Number: 320
Explanation and Analysis:
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Nilima Bose Quotes in The Hungry Tide

The The Hungry Tide quotes below are all either spoken by Nilima Bose or refer to Nilima Bose. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Language Theme Icon
).
Part 1: The Trust Quotes

But these elements of an ordinary rural existence did not entirely conceal the fact that life in Lusibari was lived at the sufferance of a single feature of its topography. This was its bãdh, the tall embankment that encircled its perimeter, holding back the twice-daily flood.

Related Characters: Kanai Dutt, Nilima Bose
Page Number: 50
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 1: The Letter Quotes

There is nothing I can do to stop what lies ahead. But I was once a writer; perhaps I can make sure at least that what happened here leaves some trace, some hold upon the memory of the world. 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 do for the last thirty years—to put my pen to paper again.

Related Characters: Nirmal Bose (speaker), Kanai Dutt, Nilima Bose
Page Number: 59
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 1: Nirmal and Nilima Quotes

It shamed them to think that this man—a foreigner, a burra sahib, a rich capitalist—had taken it upon himself to address the issue of rural poverty when they themselves, despite all their radical talk, had scarcely any knowledge of life outside the city.

Related Characters: Nirmal Bose, Nilima Bose, Sir Daniel Hamilton
Page Number: 66
Explanation and Analysis:

But for these women the imagining of early widowhood was not a wasted effort: the hazards of life in the tide country were so great; so many perished in their youth, men especially, that almost without exception the fate that they had prepared themselves for did indeed befall them.

Related Characters: Nirmal Bose, Nilima Bose
Related Symbols: Tigers
Page Number: 68
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 1: Moyna Quotes

"Why else?" she said. "Because there's a lot of money in prawns and the traders had paid off the politicians. What do they care—or the politicians, for that matter? It's people like us who're going to suffer and it's up to us to think ahead."

Related Characters: Moyna (speaker), Kanai Dutt, Nilima Bose, Fokir, Tutul
Page Number: 112
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 2: A Feast Quotes

I was tempted to tell him what I thought of him, but it struck me with great force that I had no business to be self-righteous about these matters. Nilima—she had achieved a great deal. What had I done? What was the work of my life? I tried to find an answer but none would come to mind.

Related Characters: Nirmal Bose (speaker), Nilima Bose, Kusum
Page Number: 160
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 2: Habits Quotes

"Nirmal, you have no idea of what it takes to do anything practical," she said. "You live in a dream world—a haze of poetry and fuzzy ideas about revolution. To build something is not the same as dreaming it. Building is always a matter of well-chosen compromises."

Related Characters: Nilima Bose (speaker), Nirmal Bose, Kusum
Related Symbols: Cyclone Shelter
Page Number: 178
Explanation and Analysis:

The sight was almost unbearable for me at the moment; I felt myself torn between my wife and the woman who had become the muse I'd never had; between the quiet persistence of everyday change and the heady excitement of revolution—between prose and poetry.

Most haunting of all, was I overreaching myself even in conceiving of these confusions? What had I ever done to earn the right to address such questions?

Related Characters: Nirmal Bose (speaker), Nilima Bose, Kusum
Page Number: 180
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 2: A Post Office on Sunday Quotes

"He loved the work of Rainer Maria Rilke […] Rilke said 'life is lived in transformation,' and I think Nirmal soaked this idea into himself in the way cloth absorbs ink. To him, what Kusum stood for was the embodiment of Rilke's idea of transformation."

Related Characters: Kanai Dutt (speaker), Piya Roy, Nirmal Bose, Nilima Bose, Kusum
Page Number: 233
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 2: The Wave Quotes

"Yes," said Nilima. "Making us build it was probably the most important thing he did in his whole life. You can see the proof of that today. But if you'd told him that, he'd have laughed. He'd have said, 'It's just social service—not revolution.'"

Related Characters: Nilima Bose (speaker), Kanai Dutt, Nirmal Bose
Related Symbols: Cyclone Shelter
Page Number: 320
Explanation and Analysis: