Book Review of The Village By The Sea

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The village by the sea is a story of a poor family in an Indian fish and farmer village called Thul. The story is based on facts. Only the name of the characters have been changed. Hari lived there with his three sisters. Lila was one year older than Hari, and Kamal and Bela were younger than him. Their father was a former fisherman , but he had to sell his boat to pay his debts he had collected at the local pub, drinking toddy. The only thing he did, was sleep all day and drink toddy all night. Their mother was very ill, and lay all day in their little hut. Hari and Lila had to take care of the smaller girls and do all chores, that the grown-ups usually do.
They had no money, and the few Hari got from coconut selling in the village wasn’t enough to buy food for the family, and soon they had to buy new books for Kamal and Bela.
Hari was not going to school and Lila stayed home to, cause their mother needed attention and care. Hari was to small to get a job in the little village, and was often found sitting on the ground of their small field, where they grewed vegetables for the family. He thought and dreamed of another life, in Bombay, the big city placed about 14 kilometres by sea from their village Thul. Hari had never been their, but he thought that Bombay was the way to his happiness.
Their mother was very ill and put on an aggressive fever, and in the same time the rumour of a factory who was going to be build in Thul started. Hari was overhearing a fisherman from the near by village Alibagh protesting against the factory who was going to be build in Thul. The man said that the factory was going to destroy their surroundings. It would produce fertilizers, and all the rest products from the manufacturing were going to just pour out in the air and in the sea. All fish were going to be sick or die, and the air was going to be polluted. And now the man from Alibagh was pulling together a group of people from Thul and Alibagh to protest in Bombay. Hari decided that he would go with them and just left Lila with all the responsibility.
The house next to Hari’s family was owned by a rich family in Bombay, they come to stay there at holidays and some weekends now and then, and usually Hari’s father was taking care of them, but now in his condition, drunk all the time, Lila and the small girls were the one to take care of them. One time they gave Hari their address in Bombay if he ever needed a job.
Hari goes with the boat along with the other fishermen and farmers to protest in Bombay. He’s been left by his own after a while, and seeks up the family for shelter and work, but they have went to Thul for the fortnight. The man, who probably was their house keeping boy, told Hari to go away. The family didn’t need any more staff. A man, who run the elevator in the building, took him to a place he could spend the night, it was a good friend of him and he knew that he was well taking care of there.
It was a shabby restaurant called Sri Krishna Eating House. The owner was a man with the name of Jagu. He was very nice to Hari and gave him food and a place to sleep for the night. The day after, they arranged that Hari could work for a small sum and have a free place to sleep and free meals.
In Thul the mother was getting worse, and Lila asked the family next door to drive her mother to the hospital in Alibagh. They helped Lila with that and offered to pay all coasts and medicines. Lila and her sisters started to work in the family’s house for a small salary and their drunk father went to Alibagh to look after their mother.
Hari worked hard for Jagu, and next door to the restaurant there was a watch mending shop, and the man who owned it, Mr Panwallah, took Hari under his wing. He learned Hari his profession and soon Hari was making money by his own. The monsoon were coming to India and the rain would never stop falling. Hari went ill, and so even Mr Panwallah. All the streets in Bombay were floating and all cars stopped working. Overhearing a conversation between Jagu and a costumer from Mr Panwallahs shop he got Mr Panwallahs address . Hari immediately go over to him and they spend all afternoon drinking tea and talk about all changes in the world and Mr Panwallah gave Hari a new hope.
The mother was improving and the doctor promised Lila that she would be home to Diwali . Lila hoped that Hari also would come home then.
Hari and Mr Panwallah grew a relationship, and Hari learned a lot from him, and earned money to take home to his family. He planed to go home for Diwali, and Jagu and Mr Panwallah helped him go on the right bus for Thul.
The happiness when Hari returns and find out that his father stopped drinking and their mother is going to be all right was big. Lila and the two younger sisters were celebrating one day earlier than they have planed to. They sat outside the hut and Hari was telling them about h...