The Lowland

The lowland, a stretch of marshland in Tollygunge, is an important location throughout the novel. The two ponds in the marshland that come together in heavy rainfall symbolize the relationship between Udayan and Subhash. When physical distance or different ideological paths separate the brothers, the ponds separate as well. During times of closeness, the ponds come together.

The story begins in the lowland, a place where the inseparable brothers spent many days during their childhood. It represents a place of nostalgia and happiness, until Udayan attempts to hide in the lowlands to evade police—a detail that hearkens back to an earlier description of lowland creatures who “survived by burying themselves in mud, simulating death, waiting for the return of rain” (3)—however, Udayan does not survive and is shot dead. His memorial stands in the marshland where the water flows. Udayan’s mother continues to visit the lowland every day to bring flowers. At the end of the story, the lowland has been drained: “That sparsely populated tract was now indistinguishable from the rest of the neighborhood, and on it more homes had been built” (320), bringing an eternal end to the relationship between Udayan and Subhash.