The Ghat of
the Only World
by
Amitav Ghosh
(Summary)
Amitav Ghosh was born in Calcutta in
1956. He grew up in Bangladesh (then East Pakistan), Sri Lanka, Iran and India.
After graduating from the University of Delhi, he went to Oxford to study Social
Anthropology and received a Master of Philosophy and a Ph. D in 1982. In 1980,
he went to Egypt to do field work in the fellaheen village of Latifa. The work
he did there resulted in In an Antique Land (IAAL1993). Ghosh has been a
journalist and published his first novel, The Circle of Reason in 1986, and his
second, The Shadow Lines in 1988. Since then, he has published, The Calcutta
Chromosome, and The Glass Palace, done fieldwork in Cambodia, lived in Delhi
and written for a number of publications. He currently lives in New York and
teaches at Columbia University.
Summary
The Ghat of the Only World is by the
author Amitav Ghosh. The story is a tribute to the Kashmiri poet Agha Shahid
Ali. Shahid made the author promise to write about him after death overtakes
him. Furthermore, this was before Shahid suffered from a brain tumour and
ultimately succumbed to it. It is a
story about friendship and commitment. Moreover, the author fulfils his promise
he made to his friend, who is no longer alive.
The story focuses on Shahid, what were his likes and what was his way of
living life. This was like a celebration even his diagnosis. The Ghat of the Only
World discusses Shahid’s love for Kashmir. It also talks about his interest in
music, food, literature, and art. The
author also discusses his views on life.
Agha Ali Shahid, an expatriate from
Kashmir, moved to Pennsylvania in 1975 and after that he lived mainly in
America. Shahid’s parents continued to live in Srinagar and it was his custom
to spend the summer months with them every year. He was a firsthand witness to
the mounting violence, that seized the region from late 1980s onwards.
Shahid regarded his time at the
Pennsylvania state as the happiest time of his life. Later he moved to Arizona
to take a degree in creative writing. This in turn was followed by a series of
jobs in colleges and universities; he was on leave from Utah, when he had his
first blackout in February 2000.
The writer, Amitav Ghosh, had known
Shahid’s work long before he met him. He became intimate with Shahid when he
moved to Brooklyn in 2000. By this time Shahid’s condition was already serious,
yet his illness did not hamper their friendship or Shahid’s interest, i.e., his
love for music, poetry, good conversation, etc.
Shahid was social by nature. There
wasn’t any evening when there was no party in his living room. He had the magician’s
ability to change the simple into the magical. He was a poet who had achieved
greatness. He knew that he was dying. Even the most trivial exchanges with him
had a special charge and urgency. He was a lover of good food.
Shahid loved repartee. The author
recalls Shahid’s witty exchanges with a security guard at Barcelona airport. He
worked poetry into his answer. He had a prophetic vision. The nightmare, that
all the Pandits had vanished from the valley of Kashmir and their food had
become extinct, haunted him.
Shahid spoke to the author about his
approaching death for the first time on 25 April2001. He wanted the author to
write something about him after his death. In spite of several unsuccessful operations,
he had not lost his cheerfulness.
On 7 May, 2001 Shahid had an important
scan. The doctors gave him a year or less. They had stopped all medicines and
chemotherapy. Shahid wanted to go back to Kashmir to die, but had to change his
mind. He was content to be laid in Northampton, in Amherst town. He died
peacefully, in his sleep, at 2 a.m. on 8 December. The author feels his
presence even in his own living room. He feels amazed that so brief a
friendship has resulted in so vast a void.
The author Amitav Ghosh certainly kept
his promise. He threw light on the painful and sweet memories with a display of
his writing skill. The way of writing was such that the pain was hidden even
from the author. Agha Shahid Ali was everything, which the author lost and the
Ghat of the Only World is an attempt to reincarnate him. The story shows the
commitment of a man towards his friend, who had exceptional admirable qualities
of being loving, secular, and lively.
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