In the Ganges delta 200 miles east of Calcutta, there is so much more water than land that people wade or swim instead of walk, and boys paddle to school in big round earthenware pots called pipkins, with their books tucked under their folded legs. The delta's inhabitants have learned to live with such hazards as high spring tides and violent cyclones that sweep in over the Bay of Bengal at the turn of the monsoon in the fall. But this month uncounted thousands of them died in the worst storm since October 1876, when 100,000 drowned in 30 minutes.
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