A River’s Tale

Let’s call our river Athena. Athena was born where everything was white, a place still untouched by civilization. Athena was born on top of a mountain.

Some years back there might have been no existence of Athena. But due to the activity of humans and global warming, some of the ice in a glacier melted, resulting in Athena. So Athena owes her life to the humans.

At the top of the mountain Athena is only a trickle of water, but she changes form as she climbs down her mother’s womb. She has already carved a path for herself. Lower down the mountain, where life has taken root, Athena is the provider of that life. Plants take up her water using their roots. Deers and snow leopards come to drink from her, thousands of fish live out their entire lives in her. Athena is now wider and fiercer than she was in her home at the top of the mountain.

In the eerie silence of the green mountain, the only roar that can be heard is Athena’s. A torrent of water descending down, she destroys every thing in her path. She is the creator of the greenery around her and rightfully declares her rule in her kingdom. Occasionally her water hits rocks, creating a fine mist, which becomes a temporary rainbow in the sunshine that disappears in the wind.

As Athena travels lower down the mountain, for the first time she encounters her creators, humans. The humans living here are mild, doing nothing more than just taking some water away for their fields. Occasionally they put a fishing rod, a net to catch some of the fishes that live there. Living with these nice humans she is not prepared for the monsters down below.

As she flows, Athena grows wider. By now she has managed to carve through more land but has become slower and more sluggish. She is no longer the river she was in the mountains.

The humans here really exploit Athena, they are taking back the favour Athena owes them for her birth. They throw all sorts of garbage they produce. From plastics to dead bodies, the humans dump it all into Athena. Factories also dump their waste products into her. The humans use the same water they dirty for drinking, farming, and factory usage. For them their source and sink are one and the same. But this is not the most heinous crime that the humans commit against Athena. They have put a barrier in Athena’s path, something they call a dam.

The humans here have taken back more from her than they had ever given. The dam stops Athena from flowing in her correct path so that they can use her for their own benefit. They use her to fish, farm and even immerse their idols. But every river has its day.

Athena takes her occasional revenge on the humans. During the rainy season, she overflows and floods the habitats of the humans causing massive damage to her neighbours. However, the revenge is too small and mild compared to the torture inflicted on her.

Slowed down by dams, soil and rocks, Athena reaches her final destination, the ocean. The sweet water that she carried from the frigid mountain tops finally mixes with the warm and salty ocean.

(I wrote this during a mock-IGCSE English test, where we were supposed to describe the journey of a river as it flows down a mountain.)