"Be the change you wish
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A Bridge Over Troubled WaterThe two men with the chebrungs play. They pound their Subbah drums to a peculiar, particular beat... their feet follow the leading of their hands. They dance to say thank you. They say thank you because they are happy. They are happy because a bridge of cement, wire and bamboo spans a river that will soon swell with monsoon rains. They are happy because their own khukuris cut the bamboo. They are happy that the village children no longer face danger en-route to school. They are happy because they now have five new Nepali friends and eleven foreign ones. It has been a hard week of work but now they play and beckon us to join them. Tekke dances at the farewell party in Rateygaon. His steps are not choreographed and his hands wave back and forth in the air spontaneously. Last year at this time he had no food for his children, no special treats to give his wife, no successful crops to sell at market, no milk from the cow and no hope that he would be anything this May except poorer and weaker. But he dances today. He dances because he, Tilak, Prakash, Suren and Ram Lal traveled to a distant village named Rateygaon, because he saw the plains of India and walked on flat ground for the first time, because he beat rice in a diki for the first time, because he and the Daragaon boys built a beautiful bridge of bamboo for the first time. Most of all, Tekke dances because he finds himself not fighting to survive, but in a new place. A place where he can give to others like a rich man. Today Tekke dances strongly. The rest of the story... |
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