As we head off for a few days to Sundarbans, the land of the shifting islands, I was happy to get a primer to these lands via the MNS talk by Dr Annu Jalais.
Dr Annu Jalais - grew up in the Sundarbans - is at Krea University and gave a wonderful snapshot to the sociology of the region.
Of course everyone since has said, Oh you should read Amitav Ghosh's Hungry Tide..which I have not...and have since added to the reading list.
All the images are below are screenshots from her talk for my reference.
Tides, cyclones, today waves...all make the lower forest islands rather treacherous as far as human habitation goes.
Muskippers and mangroves, aerial roots and shifting sands.
Local legend - the salt water makes the tigers of Sundarbans rather grumpy and ill tempered.
There are three types of charms - the tickling one, the sleepy one, ad the one which removes hunger. When the islanders get off the island, the charmer has to remove the spell, and free the tiger.
The relationship to non-humans was something on a different paradigm from my urban thinking.
I am reading Forest of Tigers that is available as a free download here. I learnt about the Hamilton of Hamilton Islands - and his cooperative social equality experiments, Gosaba, Satjelia, Canning, the bidyadari river, and how one was traveling Up or Down.
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