Water From The Mountains

There was a small village on the outskirts of Sikkim. Vivek and his elder sister Janvi lived with their parents Vijay and Geeta. There were many mountains near the village and it would rain there frequently. The villagers were very kind. They all lived in a small hut made of mud, straw and wood but still, they were very comfortable in that small house. They kept all the things in one room. In the room, there was a mat, a few pots, a bed, a big box, some logs of wood, a stove and some clothes. Outside their house, there was a lake. They also had some cows and hens.

It was 7 am and Geeta was filling water in her pot from the lake. She took the water and went inside. When Vijay got up, he went to his farm where he would grow potatoes, tomatoes, carrots, radishes, oranges, bananas and apples. He got some tomatoes home and sold others and bought a small packet of pepper. For breakfast, they had tomatoes with pepper. They also drank the freshwater from the lake.

One afternoon, they all had just finished their meal and were having water and suddenly all the people started running helter-skelter as water started entering their houses.

‘Pack our stuff kids and Vijay please make a wooden boat with the logs of wood and the ropes’, said Geeta.

Vijay immediately started making a boat. Vivek put all the vegetables and fruits they had in the big box, Janvi put all the pillows and bedsheets and Geeta kept the pots. Before leaving they tied the cows to the boat and the hens sat in the boat. They all left in their boat in fifteen minutes. The waves were getting higher and higher. Vijay was not able to row the boat properly. The kids sat in Geeta’s lap. Vijay started rowing the boat fast.

Soon, it was night. Geeta was very upset.

‘What happened Geeta?’, asked Vijay.

‘I am worried, when will you sleep?’, said Geeta.

‘I won’t sleep’, Vijay paused and said, ‘I will stay awake and row the boat.’

Geeta was sad but didn’t say anything. Everyone had slept but Vijay was awake. It was growing darker. Vijay was still rowing. He filled a pot with water and quenched his thirst.

Finally, it was morning. Geeta got up and saw that Vijay’s eyes were red.

‘Please stop rowing the boat’, said Geeta.

‘Why?’, asked Vijay.

‘Your eyes are red; I will row the boat please give me the oars.’

Vijay smiled and said, ‘I am fine.’

Geeta snatched the oars and said, ‘sleep, Vijay.’

Vijay smiled and slept. Janvi and Vivek woke up and ate tomatoes. After 2 hours Vijay also got up and ate tomatoes. The kids hugged Vijay and asked, ‘will we be fine daddy?’

‘Yes, my dear ones’, said Vijay.

Suddenly the boat dashed a huge mountain. Vijay saw a lot of water coming down from it.

‘Alight the boat quickly’, said Vijay. Everyone got down. Vijay lifted the box and kept it down. Vijay looked up at the mountain and said, ‘now I know from where the water is coming in our village.’ Geeta, Vivek and Janvi nodded. Vijay removed the mats from the box and spread the mats behind the mountain, on the shore.

‘Sit here, said Vijay. They all sat on the mats.

 ‘Daddy why are we sitting here?’, asked Janvi.

Vijay smiled and said, ‘we are going to plan how to save our village from this water till the rains stop.’ Vivek asked, ‘why should we work so hard, let the village Panchayat do this!’

Vijay said, ‘my dear son, we also live in that village, it is our duty also to protect it.’ Vivek nodded.

Geeta said, ‘let’s think how can we save the village.’ Vivek joked, ‘let’s break the mountain.’

Geeta and Janvi laughed but Vijay didn’t as he was very serious. In a couple of minutes Vijay said, let us build a wall around our village. ‘Yes!’, said Vivek and Geeta. Janvi thought a bit and said, ‘ok daddy!’

‘From where will we get the money to buy bricks, cement and some tools?’ asked Geeta. Vijay sighed and said, ‘we will sell our farm’ and he sighed again. Everyone looked puzzled.

‘Then, how w…...w... we will get our money and food?’ asked Janvi.

‘I will manage that, replied Vijay in a hassled voice.

‘Let’s go!’ said Vijay. They all ran to the boat and made their way made to the village.

After a night of rowing, they reached the village. Vijay stopped the boat away from the land.

‘Why did you stop the boat here? Are you hungry?’ asked Geeta.

Vijay sniggered, ‘I am not hungry and I stopped the boat to see if there is still water in the village.’

‘Oh!’ said the kids. Everyone looked at the village and there was little water. Vijay rowed the boat and halted at the land. They all got down. Vijay called all the villagers and announced, ‘we will build a wall surrounding the village before the rains stop.’

‘How will we raise the money?’ asked a villager

‘I will sell my farm’, said Vijay.

Everyone was struck. One man named, Shyam said, ‘no dear Vijay, we all will contribute some money.’

Vijay smiled ‘thank you Shyam and everyone.’

‘Tomorrow, we will start building the wall till then everyone can try to collect money

‘Every penny will be a big contribution. Everyone smiled. A person from the Panchayat called Karan asked, ‘till then where will we live, we all had taken our stuff and ran behind that mountain so we can stay there on mats.’ Vijay nodded, expressing his accord.

After reaching that place Vijay opened the box and removed two diggers, gave one to Shyam and kept the other one in his hand.

‘Start digging in the mountain’, said Vijay, his voice full of gusto. They dug and dug and dug till night. It rained in between but they worked tirelessly. Finally, they finished digging. They all went inside a small cave sat on the mats.

‘Everyone please keep all the money you have, here on the mat’, said Geeta.

A woman opened a big trunk and removed a small pouch, opened it and turned, all the money fell down. There were ten 1-rupee coins, two 20-rupee notes and two 2-rupee coins. ‘I have 52 rupees!’, she exclaimed. Everyone smiled. One more man kept four 500-rupee notes. ‘I have 2000 rupees.’ Everyone was happy.

Once everyone had given their share of money there was a total of 10000 rupees.

‘Does anyone have a few umbrellas and raincoats so few of us can go and get all the stuff?’ asked Karan.

Some people got raincoats and umbrellas. Six people went and got all the bricks, cement, etc. with some workers of the shops.

Soon, everyone came to the cave. They were very happy. The workers also left. It again started raining. Shyam said, ‘Karan, Nikhil, Vijay, Arjun and Iyer take the raincoats and umbrellas and let’s go.’

‘Vinod, Vibhatsu and Umang and others, please take care of the kids and women’, said Karan.

They all nodded.

All the men who were leaving lifted a few bricks and bags of cement. It rained terribly. Vijay put his umbrella away and said, ‘we will get wet but if we work with umbrellas then it will take longer.’ Everyone agreed. They kept their umbrellas aside and removed their raincoats and started working with all their energy. Arjun, a young boy, put some cement on the ground with the shovel and placed a brick on it and then another and continued doing his work. Shyam emptied the cement in the buckets. Vijay started piling the bricks one on top of the other. Nikhil also started helping Arjun and Karan started getting more bags of cement from the cave. Arjun got tired and sat down completely wet.

Vijay looked at the wall and asked Arjun, ‘what is this?’

‘This is a wall’, said Arjun.

‘Made of what?’ asked Vijay.

‘Bricks and cement’ replied Arjun, wondering what Vijay was trying to say.

‘And?’ questioned Vijay. He gave a sweet smile and said, ‘this is a wall made with love and hard work.’ Without saying anything more Arjun got up and was back to work, feeling contented. 

After an hour, the work was done. Vijay and all the other villagers were very happy.

‘Well done everyone, said Karan.

It was still raining. They all took the raincoats and went to the cave. When the men, kids and women saw all of them, they were happy.

Geeta walked to Vijay and asked, ‘is the work done?’

 ‘Yes’, said Vijay. Geeta was very happy and hugged Vijay. Janvi and Vivek also hugged Vijay.

‘We are proud of you daddy’, said Vivek.

Vijay smiled. They all took their stuff and went to their houses. They lived with the wall forever. Vijay was not a member of the Panchayat but as he did this noble deed, he became the head of the Panchayat. They all lived happily and peacefully.