Friday, January 21, 2011

                                                                              
                                                                             Chapter 2

It had been a bright sunny day. The womenfolk of the village had just returned from their early morning daily chore of drawing water from the river. It was a very normal scene here, where one could see that while the boys and the men, enjoyed their comforting sleep, the little girls with smaller vessels and the older ones with larger ones, made haste towards the direction of the river, almost running and brisk walking, just before dawn. After filling their vessels, with pure sweet and icy cold fresh water, they would each carry these back on their own, singing together a joyful melody, as they returned, taking slow and measured paces, to balance their heavy load above, all through their uphill path. This task was performed as a daily ritual by the girls and the womenfolk of each household here. On their return, they would quickly cook food for their families and hurriedly move out of their houses again...to perform another tiring and back breaking task. Some even carried their little babies by tying them tightly on their back. With  sharp sickles they would carefully chop soft new grass for their sheep and return home by dusk with their daily load of grass.


That day, every thing was quiet and soothing. The two pregnant women, parched themselves comfortably on their locations close to each other. Their voices of cheer and chatter was loud enough and could be heard from far. The others nearby, at times, exchanged notes. The sounds of laughter reverbrated through the air. And then.....! All of a sudden, that painful stillness desended

....to be contd

                                                                             

THE HEALING TOUCH

                                                                               
                                                                                Chapter 1


Before entering the plains,the river ran through two villages, each on its either side. Inspite of being situated on the slopes of lower ranges of the mountain and being a hilly area, the place where the course of the river lay near these two villages, was actually a pebbled flat land. It appeared as if the river ran through a valley. Here, its water had no depth at all. The river bed could be seen crystal clear. Many round shaped big and small bolders were placed here and there all along it's course. some even lay within it's waters as if, to restrict their flow. The flowing waters know no obstruction, they just know to move on, if anything hinders their flow, they change their course and pave new roads, new paths for themselves, without ever succumbing to stagnation.

The river had great speed in it's currents, which travelled, hitting and pounding the rocks on the way, splashing its water by turning into a spray of innumerable tiny droplets. This way, the river had been traversing a great distance from the mighty Himalayas to the Gangetic plains, since time unknown.

Farming and cattle-rearing were the two main occupations in which, the entire populace of the villages was engaged. There were few families though, in both the villages, whose occupation was sheep rearing. They were nomadic people, who dependent on sheep for it's wool and meat.Into one such family Ramilla was born......to be contd.