The Stream My Mother Loved

My mother played here as a child. Today, it’s almost unrecognizable. And I can’t just watch it vanish.

- Rahat Bint Sajad

I could barely contain my excitement when I learned that a branch of the Doodh-ganga River ran just fifty steps from our new house.

I kept thinking about the day we would move in.

I had visited the construction site many times, but my father never let me go near the stream. He promised I could see it once we moved.

The day finally came.

I slipped past the movers carrying our furniture, carpets, and boxes, and ran straight to the river. I imagined it would be blue and clear, full of fish and otters, just like my mother said it was when she was a child.

Our new home is in Gopalpur, my mother's hometown. She told me countless stories of her childhood there, and the stream was always at the center.