The Hungry Tide

Nilima takes a nap. When she awakes, she and Kanai speak again. She introduces him to Moyna, the trainee nurse and Fokir’s wife. She shows him around the hospital, which he has never seen. It is, he notices, impeccably clean. He also notes, happily, that his aunt installed cyclone-proof doors. Though he interfered little with the Trust, Kanai had recommended this structural addition. They talk about Fokir and Tutul—Moyna wants her son to go to school, not ride the rivers with his father. The future, she says, is not in fishing, and Kanai realizes “how much had changed in the tide country since his last visit” (112). Moyna reveals her ambition to be a nurse, and Kanai assures her she will reach her goal.

Piya continues to watch the dolphins swim, play, and eat. They disappear around midday, and Piya grows anxious, wondering when Fokir will demand to leave, as he and Tutul haven’t “had a single strike all morning” (114). Piya needs more evidence, more pictures of the dolphins, to submit in order to get another grant.