The Day the River Spoke

Before you read, close your eyes and listen for a minute. Birds chirping? A cheerful morning. Leaves rustling? A windy day. Traffic? People off to work. Sounds seem to tell us things. And do the things around us listen to us too? In this story, one does!

Unit 1 of Poorvi opens with 'The Day the River Spoke' by Kamala Nair. Jahnavi is a bright girl who lives with her parents and three brothers in a village by the sea in India. Her parents work on the farm.

The story begins with Jahnavi crying by the river. A big tear splashes down her nose. A blue kingfisher dives like an arrow in the sunlight, and a green lizard slides to the water's edge to sit in the sun.

Then a sleepy, murmuring voice says, "Dear, dear! What's the matter?" Jahnavi is startled: she thought she was alone. It can't be the lizard. It can't be the kingfisher, busy eating its fish in the bamboo. It can't be the parrots; they shriek, and this voice is sleepy. It is the River!

She tells the River her trouble: "They won't let me go to school." Her mother always said she was too small, then "maybe next year, mind your little brother". Her brother Gopi (she calls him Ettan, which means elder brother) and Meena go to school. Now Jahnavi is nearly ten, still minding Little Appu, the smallest.

She has so many questions: why spiders are yellow in yellow flowers, why bamboo trees rustle, why the moon always comes from behind the hills, why baby fish in the field water become frogs. (You know those 'baby fish' are tadpoles. Jahnavi doesn't, because she hasn't been to school!) "Stop!" says the River. "So many whys! You make me breathless!"

The River gives her advice: "Seems to me little girls can do as much as little boys; they swim as fast as little boys. Just slip along one morning, sit in the school and listen, and maybe the teacher will let you stay."

"They'd chase me out!" gasps Jahnavi. The River laughs: she isn't afraid of the lizard, the snake in the bamboo, or the big trains rattling past the bridge! It tells her about ships, big boats carrying hundreds of people, with lights shining all night. Then the words the whole story turns on: "Try going to school first. Remember, it's up to you!" What's your dream, and what could you do to reach it?