imagine you are a one of the Indian rivers. Write a short story about your birth and journey till you meet the Ocean.
Answers
Why do rivers enthrall us? Maybe it's because they're teeming with life—everything from nibbling midges to flashing kingfishers and trout and salmon wiggling beneath the ripples. Perhaps it's because water is so central to our existence and so vital to life. Possibly it's to do with the tranquility of a river; in countryside or in cities, the sight of water has an instantly calming effect. All these things come to mind, instinctively or very consciously, whenever we think of rivers or spend time near them swimming, fishing, boating, or canoeing. Let's take a look at what makes rivers so amazing!
Photo: The River Itchen, England. Photo courtesy of UK Rivers Network published under a Creative Commons Licence.
What is a river?
Aerial view of the Black River Yukon Flats
Photo: Aerial view of the Black River Yukon Flats National Wildlife Refuge. Photo by M. LeFever courtesy of US Fish and Wildlife Service.
Water is constantly circulating between Earth's surface (the land and oceans that make up our planet) and the atmosphere up above in a never-ending conveyor belt called the water cycle. Rivers are the main parts of the conveyor that carry water from the higher parts of Earth (the mountains and hills that we call uplands) to the lower parts (lakes and seas). You can think of rivers as drains, if you like: channels with fairly well defined banks, carved through millennia, that can be thin and shallow or very deep and wide. Powered by gravity, rivers are always flowing downhill (even when they look absolutely flat, they're really flowing down a gentle incline). Unlike seas, which are salty, rivers are filled with freshwater to which the lives of many different creatures (insects, animals, and humans too) have become perfectly adapted. Far from the oceans, rivers bring the land to life.
The path of a river
You might think a river is a dead thing, because it's not a living organism. But you can think of a river as a living thing in at least three important ways. First, it's full of living creatures like otters and fish: it may not be alive, but it's certainly full of life. Second, it's living in the sense that it's constantly adapting to Earth's changing climate, geology, ecology—and even the changes that humans bring. Third, it's living because it changes its character from the place in the uplands where it begins its life (known as its source) to the place where it ends its life (known as its outlet or mouth, where it flows into the sea). The path that a river takes in its journey over Earth's surface is a bit like the life a human leads between birth and death but, where a human's life is spread out in time, a river's spreads out in geographical space.
Upper river courses (youthful stage)
Waterfall
Photo: Tower Falls. A waterfall is a typical feature of the upper reaches of a river. Photo by Bruce Halstead courtesy of US Fish and Wildlife Service.
A river begins life high in the hills or mountains. In a cold region, a river may be created by melting snow or a glacier. In warmer places, rivers typically form when water drains from a whole series of upland slopes known as a basin. Water drains from each slope to form a small trickle called a rill. Rills from many slopes combine to form brooks, which join together to make creeks (small streams) and larger streams, before all these things eventually merge into a river. The brooks, streams, and creeks that form a river are called its tributaries. Flowing down from high hills and mountains, the upper part (or course) of a river is usually narrow, steep, and marked by sharp valleys and abrupt, zig-zag changes of direction. The steepness means the water flows quickly, often forming dramatic features such as white-water rapids and waterfalls (great for canoeists). Rapid flow means the water has high energy to cut through rocks, wearing away deposits in a process called erosion.
Middle river courses (mature stage)
River meander
Photo: Meanders occur in the middle and lower reaches of a river. These meanders are at the confluence (joining point) of the rivers Alatna and Koyukuk near Allakaket. Photo by Steve Hillebrand courtesy of US Fish and Wildlife Service.