How Far is the River? By Ruskin Bond, a writer with name and fame for his simple stories, characters. This podcast has been prepared by students as their class learning assignment and has been submitted as EduSoMedia Podcast work. The students have done hundreds of such podcasts.
Podcast on How Far is the River
The Story starts:
Between the boy and the river stood a mountain. The boy was young and the river was small but the mountain was big.
The thickly forested mountain hid the river, but the boy knew it was there and where it was and what it looked like; he had never seen the river with his own eyes, but from the villagers, he had heard of it, of the fish in its waters, of its rocks and currents and waterfalls, and it only remained for him to touch the water and know it personally.
He stood in front of his house on the hill opposite the mountain, and gazed across the valley, dreaming of the river. He was about twelve years old, a sturdy boy, with untidy black hair and shining black eyes; he had fine features and clear brown skin, but his hands and feet were rough and scratched. He was barefooted; not because he couldn't afford shoes, but because he felt free in his bare feet, because he liked the feel of warm stones and cool grass, because not wearing shoes saved him the trouble of taking them off.
It was eleven o'clock and he knew his parents wouldn't be home till evening. There was a loaf of bread he could take with him, and on the way, he might find some fruits. Here was the opportunity he had waited for; it would not come again for a long time, because it was not very often his mother and father visited relatives for the entire day and left him on his own; they had gone out on something important, that was why he had been left with a very sketchy meal; a loaf of bread, some milk, and two eggs. If he came home before dark - before they return - they wouldn't know where he'd been.
He went into the house and wrapped the loaf in a newspaper. Then he closed all the doors and windows...
Listen for the rest of the Boy-River and Ruskin Bond!
Podcast on How Far is the River
