The Hungry Tide: Part 1: Moyna Summary & Analysis

Kanai goes back to Nilima after noon, at which point she looks alert and happier. She tells Kanai that Moyna is going to show him around the hospital. It took Nilima years to realize that Moyna was the wife of Fokir, Kusum's son. Nilima was thrilled to learn that Fokir survived the massacre. She explains that Moyna is ambitious and very interested in education. She married because her parents insisted, and though Fokir is fine, he's also illiterate and nothing more than a crab fisherman. Nilima has heard that she and Fokir are having problems and that Fokir isn't happy in Lusibari, which may be why he disappears.

Moyna knocks on the door and enters. Kanai can tell she's been crying, and Nilima tells him in English to be careful. Kanai is shocked when Nilima says "righty-o" as she sends them off. He thinks that while her Bengali has adapted to the tide country dialect, her English—which she never uses—is English that hasn’t been spoken in India since before partition.

As Kanai and Moyna walk, Kanai mentions that he knew Kusum. When Kanai mentions Fokir, Moyna's face falls. Kanai admires the scale of the hospital and thinks that Nilima did an amazing thing building it. Moyna is clearly proud as she shows Kanai through the wards and explains that people who could more easily reach Canning or Kolkata come to Lusibari instead. She points out the cyclone shelter, Nirmal's one contribution to the hospital.

Kanai asks if Moyna has ever brought Fokir to the hospital, and she explains he doesn't like it here. She says that on Lusibari, Tutul goes to school instead of spending his days fishing with Fokir. She doesn't want him to grow up to be a fisherman, as the fish and crabs will supposedly be gone in fifteen years with the introduction of nylon nets to catch tiger prawns. Nilima tried to get the nets banned, but the traders paid off the politicians. Moyna insists that she's tried to tell Fokir that Tutul needs an education, but he's illiterate and doesn't understand.

Kanai thinks that Moyna has a nuanced grasp of how the world works and thinks it's unfortunate that she's married to someone who can't keep up. He listens to her talk about wanting to work in the operating room and sees his own passion for language in her desire to be a nurse. Kanai assures her she'll make it, using a familiar pronoun instead of a formal one. It feels too intimate, but he chooses to say nothing.