Sea of Poppies

As they prepare to leave for the Black Water, the overseers keep careful eye on the migrants, aware that their proximity to the last land they’ll see might prove too great a temptation. Fights begin to break out, and because there are no elders, relatives, or friends to intercede, these conflicts escalate much more quickly.

Deeti begins to sing, and the other women follow along. Neel suddenly feels Deeti’s Bhojpuri language flood back into him: “Parimal had been accustomed to speak to him [in Bhojpuri], in his infancy and childhood—until the day when his father put a stop to it […] Parimal’s rustic tongue was the speech of those who bore the yoke” (388-89). Later, excited to again use his old tongue, he tells the other migrants a story in Bhojpuri that they were trying to remember. The migrants are dumbfounded by the fact that this convict can speak so many languages and be so familiar with their stories.

At dawn, Doughty departs the ship; now that they have reached the Bay of Bengal, his work on the Ibis is finished for the time being. After restocking supplies, the wind dies entirely, leaving the Ibis stuck in the water.