A Song For The Waves

The boat swayed with the rhythm of the waves while the boatman hummed a tune as if to pacify an angry beast. The song intrigued me, the slow cadence of his voice was melancholy one moment and optimistic the next moment. It filled the air with a strange intoxication. He sang rustic folk-songs, lyrics I could not interpret but the tunes arrested my attention.
My father, politely trying to start a conversation said “What is that song Bhaiya?”

The boatman’s face broke into a broad grin, “It is the song I sing to my children asking them to be brave.”

“How many children do you have? Where do they live?” inquired my father.

A forlorn expression came over the boatman’s face while he said, “I have two children Saabji, a son of four years and a daughter of eleven years. We lived along the river bank. But now this river is my home.”

“How can the river be your home?” I interposed.

“Well my children are here and home is where family is...three years back I lost them to this river during the flood. I believe their souls rest in the river bottom. That is why I sing to them their favourite tales. You know how they say songs can travel far and long so I know my songs reach them. At night I sing them to sleep with the promise of a new morning. See the waves tugging at the boat? That is my children asking me to sing. Once I start singing they calm down.”

The poignancy of separation choked my voice. The boatman had already started singing to the waves and I pressed the record button on my phone to record the boatman’s song and his life in a single MP3 file.

Thank you all for reading this post. I am glad if you like this post. In life there should be some space for chances like anything happens about which we were not supposing and it just happens. Give some space in your life for this kind of chance. That's all about life.

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