The town by the sea by Amitav Ghosh - Summary

Amitav Ghosh is one of the prominent Indian writers. "The Town by the Sea" is an abridged version of a three-part essay by Amitav Ghosh written about the Tsunami of 26 December 2004. His friend, the director was in Port Blair, on his way to New Delhi. He had left his family in Malacca but an unexpected incident took place, a Tsunami followed an earthquake. After that incident, he contacted his son, through the officials, and came to know that his wife and daughter had died on the spot, while his son saved himself by holding on to the rafters of a church.

The Director reached his place in Malacca with the narrator, but the wreck and the debris caused by the Tsunami left him embarassed. The Tsunami had left parts of nature unharmed while selectively destroying man made property. He noticed that his house and the nearby town were washed away in the Tsunami. He got a yellow paint box of his daughter, which he never picked up. In an ultimate act of sorrow, the father left the only memoir of his dead daughter where he had found it and returned from Malacca. This essay gives a striking experience of the loss and trauma caused by a Tsunami.