Village By The Sea book review

Lila who prayed to sacred rock in the morning was responsible to take care of the house by doing all the house chores. Hari was responsible to earn money for the family. Their mother was terribly sick and was very weak and their father was a drunkard and he liked to drink toddy. Bela and Kamal were the youngest sisters in the family. They went to school but Lila and Hari did not Pinto was their family’s dog and it was very loyal to the family. Their family was very poor.

Ramu was Hari’s friend and he wished to get a job in the new factory which would be built in Thul. Biju was probably the richest fisherman in Thul as he owned a fishing boat with diesel engine and fridge but he was very arrogant so the villagers did not like him. The de Silvas was a very rich family and owned a bungalow in Thul. He was one of the benefactors of Hari.

Hira- bai was the man who sent the medicine to the children’s sick mother. Adarkar led the villagers to Bombay to protest against the building of the new factory. The factory watchman did not like Thul but had to live in a tin shack to protect the materials being stolen. The policeman disagreed Hari to sleep in the park but he agreed at last.

Mr Panwallah repaired watches for a living. He used to live in a villa but now his home is a little room near Grant Road Station. He helped Hari a lot by teach him how to mend watch for free of charge and he provided him with extra jobs so that he could earn more money so he was Hari’s one of the benefactors.

Jagu ran the Sri Khrishna Eating House and live in a slum in Bombay. He was Hari’s benefactor because he provided Hari with jobs to earn a living in Bombay. Mrs Jagu was unhappy when her husband, Jagu, brought the sick boy home from the restaurant. Their family was not so rich. Sayyil Ali Sahil came from Bombay and he like the simple life in Thul.


The themes that appear in the story are mainly five themes. They are “change and adaptation”, “urban and rural India”, “poverty and wealth”, “family” and “benefactors”.

Change and adaptation is reflected when there would be a new factory been built in Thul and when Hari went to Bombay to find a job and earn a living. Hari leaves Thul and had to learn to adapt to living in the city. He could no longer rely on the traditional livelihoods of farming and fishing but begin to make plans for the future.

The theme ”urban and rural India” can be seen in the story when the village Thul was very rural and poor but a sense of urbanization was indicated with the news of the factories which was to be built in Alibagh and Thul.

Poverty and wealth is reflected when Hari’s family was too poor that they only can eat dry bread or dry rice and Hari had to escape to Bombay to find jobs and earn a living. However, Biju and the de Silvas were so rich that Biju owned the best fishing boat in the village and the de Silvas had a bungalow in Bombay.

The theme “family” can be seen in the story when Hari had a dysfunctional family. His mother was so sick that she could not get up from the bed and his father was a drunkard. His father slept all the time and only wake up in the night to go the she toddy shop to drink toddy with the three brothers from the neighboring farms. While a healthy family can be seen in the de Silvas, who spent their holidays in Thul together and the parents care and provide for the children.

Benefactors is reflected when the de Silvas helped the family, Hira-lal, Jagu and Mr Panwallah helped Hari when Hari went to Bombay. Mr de Silvas sent their mother to hospital and pay all the fees on his own accord. Hira-lal saved Hari from hunger in Bombay when Hira-lal brings Hari to Jagu. Then, Jagu gave Hari a job and his salary was one rupee a day. After that, Hari met Mr Panwallah and Mr Panwallah taught him how to mend watches on his own accord. Mr Panwallah also let Hari help out in his shop and Hari was given salary.

I think that this book is quite interesting because it shows a lot of themes and interesting characters. The themes can reflect real life scenes, such as the theme family. The characters are also quite real too. The characters give me a sense that I am just in their story. All in all, I think that the story is well-written so I think I will recommend it to my friends.

The books that influenced my parents life

I interviewed my parents and I found out that the books that influenced their life are the series of New Concept English. They said that those books influenced their life because those books are very good and they learned English from the books. Those books contain different kinds of English passages, which include fiction and non-fiction.

They think the books are good because the passages contain a lot of good vocabularies and the passages are ranged from the easiest to the hardest. In the series, there are four books, which are also ranged from the easiest to the hardest.

After they had read those books, their English improved a lot and they were able to communicate in English. So those books helped them a lot. Then, when they apply for jobs, they could go for the job that required them to speak English.

They also introduced the new edition of the series to me because they believed that those books can help me in my English.