Village Tales: Sand miners

The sand miners are already there before the break of dawn. They work stealthily, rowing their boats with long thin poles and one of them supervises, sees to it that no sand is being drawn from the shore.

There are more flats coming up now, nobody wants to live in tiled roof abodes, the thieves have it easy, they say. So there is more sand gathered from the river bed, drab multi-storied blocks come up, and people spend more time locked up in their homes before the TV, even as the clouds darken and a light drizzle makes countless ripples on the river's gentle ebb...