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The Village By The Sea



 When her children were small, Anita Desai lived in Mumbai and often took them to a small fishing village on the Arabian Sea for holidays. They observed the lives of fishermen and rice and coconut farmers, but when the village was chosen as the site for a giant fertilizer factory, much was to change. A poor family that lived in a hut behind the big house went through these changes. The book is about the ways in which their lives were affected. Many families and many places in India have had this experience.

The story is about a poor family in Thul, a coastal village in Maharashtra. Each day is about survival for them. The mother is ill and cannot move. The father, a habitual drinker, does no work. Hari and Lila are the elder siblings who abandoned their schooling to help the family earn pennies while their younger siblings go to school.

The setting of the story is in their poor huts. With factories coming in their village, they are feared to be out of work soon. Gradually, their story changes and the step they take changes their situation.
Yes, it was slow in the beginning but it was worth it!

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Location: India

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