The first time i read this book was at school. It was our literature book in Grade 8. I thought oh no heres another boring literature book and i started reading it. But i was wrong. :) Hari can’t work after their conversation. Even if he did clear the field, the vegetables he would grow would not be enough. He walks down to the sea and sits in the shade of a tree grove. Ramu comes along on his bike with two boys, Bhola and Mahesh. The four of them used to play on the beach with their dogs and go to school. Bhola and Mahesh don’t go to school now, but for a different reason than Hari: they find it boring even though they have money for books and school fees. They don’t want to follow in their fathers’ footsteps and be fishermen; they want to go work in Bombay, and wait around for an opportunity to arise that will bring money and “a good time.” Monsoon season is upon them, and Mr. Panwallah brings Hari to the Worli sea face to see the coming storms. Hari is pleased when Mr. Panwallah buys him a puffed rice cone because he feels like a child, not a worn and weary adult. Anita Desai writes about things she knows and things she does not, in the book, 'The Village by the sea'. Things she knows, Mumbai, wealth, how to sell Indian culture and the colors of India. What she does not know (among other things), poverty, what people who have no money are thinking, daily life. Jagu might have a restaurant with a lot of customers, but he still lives in a slum, Hari realizes. The hillside is muddy and the huts are derelict; Hari wonders why Jagu brought him here. The huts cannot keep the rain out. It is dark inside.

Lila and Hari are the oldest children in a poor family. They live in Thul, a small fishing village located next to the sea in a rural region of India. The family has not always been poor, but fell into bad fortune when the children’s father paid a large sum of money to a man who promised to get him a job in Mumbai. However, the man lied to him and disappeared with the money. After the incident, the father fell into a deep despair and began drinking and neglecting the family. He does not earn a living, but borrows money from the neighbors to buy alcohol. Desai accurately paints a picture of how lonely, confusing, and destabilizing the city can be, especially to a young boy from the rural seaside. He knows no one would be able to survive if it were not for the kindness of Hira Lal, Jagu, and Mr. Panwallah. These individuals have no obligation to Hari but see in him a struggling child who needs guidance. Through them he gains a job, money, a place to stay, and, thanks to Mr. Panwallah, an actual future and the kind of confidence that will help bring that future about. Economic Growth and its Discontents Working from the base of an excellent masterplan, we have developed an architectural approach that combines the latest environmental standards with new buildings that match their neighbours, by reflecting the essential Georgian elements of proportion, simplicity and close attention to detail. When Hari reaches the market, the ice-man has not yet arrived due to a traffic delay. He welcomes the wait, needing some time to be alone as he feels he has been shoved around by crowds a lot recently. Hari has given up on asking Biju for a job because he knows the Bombay man is more clever and wily than Biju and that he probably spoke the truth. The man jokingly comments to Biju that he’s building another ordinary fishing boat, which irritates Biju; he tells the man about all of the boat’s special features. The man laughs and says that soon fifty miles won’t be enough as the area is being overfished. He tells everyone listening that the Thul villagers should give up on fishing and move onto other things. Biju says that fishing is the village tradition, and always will be, and even if it wasn’t, they still have their fertile crop fields. The man points out that soon the factory landowners will buy up the rice fields. Even if the Thul villagers don’t want to sell it, the government will force them.I would have loved if the characters were more fleshed out. I didn't feel like I had full access to Hari or Lila's mindset. Maybe it was the writing but I felt like I was quite distanced from them. Obviously I sympathised with them but I think Anita Desai could have done a better job with making her characters more authentic. All of the characters felt very watered-down and that was disappointing. The main issue at play in the novel is the changes coming to the Alibagh district and what that might mean for the villagers. At first, Hari is somewhat optimistic about the factory that is to be built in Thul, and he is also optimistic about potentially getting work on Biju’s fancy new boat. Even though he tells himself, “He could not afford dreams, he must be practical and think out a scheme” (45), he is a bit “excited to think that life held so many possibilities” (48).

Explanation of Rating: The Village By The Sea is the story of the evolution of Lila and Hari into adults as they face their family’s predicaments. The story has a gentle voice of the author and it is an impressive book. I have realized again that there are people who have a tougher life than me. Moreover, it made me embarassed that I have thought I am poor at times. I love the book because it tells about a life style and love of a poor family who live in Thul, which is fourteen kilometers away from Bombay. In the morning when Lila tried to wake her mother, she didn’t respond and was burning with fever. Lila sends Bela and Kamal to their neighbors, the Khanekars, to ask for Hira-bai to come. Kamal wonders if the neighbors will be drunk like her father, but the two girls go off. They see a discarded snake skin on their way, which momentarily scares them.

Lila visits the hospital weekly and is happy her father has quit drinking. The visits are hard but she is grateful to see her mother’s progress. The book begins incredibly slowly, the excitement does not seep in until after the halfway mark, when Bombay comes into picture and changes things. The narrative though, is very vivid. Desai makes it so beautiful that we can smell the salty tang in the air, feel the sea breeze on our faces, and also feel the pain of the hunger and poverty and the hope and dispair of a little family in the village. Desai brings the scene alive in our minds and engages us with little responsible Lila who wears her special pink saree to the village market and of small determind Hari who wants to go to Bombay so his family will have good lives. It is this speciality of the author that makes the book work for me. I have read many books that were claimed literary masterpieces but I feel this book is better than some of them. Biju’s boat is being built. The village children like to come and watch. Biju has hired workmen from Alibagh, the district capital, even though the Thul men have been building boats all their lives. Biju likes to sit in a chair and watch the progress. His fat wife comes to watch sometimes as well, but gets tired easily and retreats to their fancy house with its many displays of wealth. Biju’s wife knows the village gossips about her, and she doesn’t like it. The villagers feel strangely proud that their tiny village is producing such a fancy new boat even if they dislike Biju and envy him. The children taunt Biju about the smuggling rumors, but he is too old and fat to catch them and scold them. Hari helps the de Silvas with their bags and Mrs. de Silva, scantily clad in a fake villager’s outfit, gives him money to buy milk and eggs for them every morning. For the next few days, Hari is busy buying the de Silva family soda, milk, eggs, fish, and various other things. The de Silvas have a cook and an ayah, who watches their small children. The Thul children think it is strange that the Bombay family swims in the sea; to them, the sea is a place of work, not leisure. The cook is overworked and Hari helps him prepare fish. The ayah has Lila help her sweep and clean the house, which is full of sand because it was left empty for so long. The de Silva children admire Lila’s bracelets and Lila asks her sisters to make them some flower garlands, which they bring home to Mrs. de Silva. At first, Hari is suspicious of his offer but then analyzes his situation and reaches the conclusion that Lila will never be able to find a good husband without money and that it is now his responsibility to provide for his family.

The Village by the Sea is a young adult novel written by Indian writer Anita Desai. The novel was first published in London in 1982, while the U.S. version of the book was released in 1984. The book tells the story of two Indian siblings, Lila and Hari, as they try to improve life for their impoverished family. The novel won the Guardian Children’s Fiction Prize, a British book award, in 1983. The de Silvas arrive in their white car from Bombay. Their house is called Mon Repos, and when they come, the village has a little bit more life as there is more things to do and more employment opportunities to be had. The de Silvas have brought a lot of luggage with them, and the children wonder if they have come to the village to stay permanently. In their hut, the sisters express their gratitude for the Mon Repos visitor, who was not driven away by the monsoon and who could pay them so they could eat. However, they miss their parents and Hari. Lila thinks he may return when the monsoon is over, during Diwali. Chapter 11 He felt like a new person, like someone who had emerged from a tightly shut box and now saw the light and felt the breeze for the first time.”During the time Hari is in Bombay, Lila finds succor from the de Silva family. When they come for their vacation, Lila works for them. She asks Mr. de Silva to take her mother to the hospital when she hears he is driving that way, and he immediately agrees and says he will take care of everything. When Lila’s father hears of this, he yells at her in a drunken rage, but he goes to the hospital and remains at his wife’s side. He also gives up drinking and is much more subdued. Lila visits every week, and her mother improves more and more.