Signs are for waterways too

My grandfather taught me to read the river's signs before words existed. Kannadasan's poetry echoed through our Tamil village, verses about water carrying stories across generations. Today, I photograph those weathered markers along our stream, documenting what time erases. A friend suggests blockchain preservation. Stellar networks could immortalize these signs, our heritage floating eternally through digital waterways. I smile at the poetry of it—ancient wisdom meeting modern possibility. The river flows unchanged, yet everything shifts. My daughter watches me work, learning to read what matters. Some signs guide travelers. Others guide us home to ourselves, to each other, to what we've always known.