I have just started reading River of Smoke by Amitav Ghosh who i consider is a mesmerizing wordsmith. the detailing is enchanting, the past can never be so dense and the play with the linguistic heritage is simply unparalleled. Yet, like his first novel in the trilogy here again certain place names and their locations (in Bihar) leave me puzzled. In the River of Smoke, we come to know that Deeti comes from Madhubani district and here Madhubani is marked with its proximity with Darbhanga.It is difficult to falter on this closeness in the plot of the story. Yet it is described as located only at distance 60miles from the confluence of Karmanasa and Ganga.
After spending some time on goggle map i figured out that Madhubani in River of smoke is not the Madhubani district of Bihar but Madhubani located near Chhapra. This is located at 90kms from the current confluence of Karmanasa and Ganga which is near Chausa.
It is bewildering that a novelist who is densely engrossed in fascinating details, weaves coordinates Cris-crossing continents and time and geographies can also falter some time on small details. This certainly does not puncture the story but leaves you pondering over the relation between literature and geography.
--
Sadan Jha
Assistant Professor,
Centre for Social Studies.
Vir Narmad South Gujarat University Campus. Udhna-Magdalla Road. Surat. Gujarat. India.
blog: mamuliram.blogspot.com
http://www.css.ac.in/sadan_jha.html
