ENCOUNTER BETWEEN EAST AND WEST IN AMITAV GHOSH’S 'THE HUNGRY TIDE' (Pages 214-220) by Mrs. S. Hilda Princi Annie* and Dr. Rev. (Sr) Ugini Fathima Mary** in THE ENGLISH RESEARCH EXPRESS / ISSN:2321-1164 (Online); 2347-2642 (Print)

Amitav Ghosh has chosen an unusual hungry setting for this novel, The Hungry Tide. The paper focusses on how characters from different language, different background and culture and tradition like Piya who symbolizes the East comes together inspite of their conflict. Fokir is an uneducated fisherman residing in the Sunderban, whereas Piya is an educated, born in Calcutta but had moved to the United States, she does not know Bengali and Fokir does not know English but how they communicate, inspite of the barriers they come across is highlighted by Ghosh. Piya, who is a graduate student in Cetology at the Scripps Institution of Oceanogaphy in California, is interested in doing research on marine mammal dolphins that is unique in Sunderbans. Fokir who is a fisherman even though uneducated, has vast knowledge about the island and the dolphins. Hence he comes to help Piya to locate her to the place where Dolphins reside. In that way the relationship between the East and the West is portrayed by Ghosh. As the time lapses, both of them understand each other and they get united inspite of their difference of culture, language and social status with a conflict of communicative barrier, takes a trust of compromise and at last end with an unique understanding between each other which is focussesd mainly in this paper. Keywords: unusual hungry setting, marine mammal dolphins, different culture, language and social status, communicative barrier etc.