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

                                                                             

2 comments:

  1. To others this simple scene meant nothing...but I find joy reading it, I love country living.
    I could still remember it clearly, the spring water from the mountain/ hill from my late Papa's rubber plantation, tasted so cool and sweet. The farmers just inserted a long metal pipe into it and the water flows non-stop.

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  2. there is a lot of serenity in the writing..crisp detailing.

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