PEOPLE&PLACES
THE BRAHMAPUTRA IS MAJESTIC IN ITS
POWER AND TRANQUILLITY. AUTHOR
SANJOY HAZARIKA TAKES A MEMORABLE
JOURNEY ON THE RIVER IN A BOAT THAT
HE DESIGNED 14 YEARS AGO.WHAT BETTER WAY TO
STARTa new year than a long
boat journey on the River
Brahmaputra? As we started
from the busy riverine ghat
(a chunk of solid sand on the
river bank, which can by no
stretch of imagination be
called a port) near Dibrugarh,
the heart of tea country in
Upper Assam, two Gangetic
dolphins leaped gracefully
and spilled into the sea.
My journey has been done
indifferent stages, during
different seasons, over a
number of years. The boats I’ve
travelled on have been lashed by
the wind, caught in rainstorms,
and stuck in sand during the
dry season when the water dries
up and the shallows emerge.
Try pushing a heavy wooden
boat in knee-deep water, like a
bus on land; you won’t forget
it easily. On the Brahmaputra,
there is a constant reminder
of the unexpected power of the
river and of human frailty.
There was a moment when
I clambered down from a
larger country boat into a tiny
dugout because my television
series director wanted me,
the anchor, to do so while he
captured the sweep of the
river. This was at Dhubri,
where the Brahmaputra takes
its majestic southward bend,
like a gigantic arrow pointed at
the heart of Bangladesh. ThisSanjoy Hazarika
Author
near the bow as if on cue.
I’ve been travelling on the
Brahmaputra for as long as
I can remember. I can recall
from my childhood days what
appeared to be giant steamers
setting off from Silghat to
Tezpur. I’ve travelled for work
and pleasure, for the sake of
just seeing the river at close
quarters, through the long
dry months of winter and thesurging, scary vastness of the
sea-like entity that it becomes
when swollen with monsoon
rain, and fed by melting ice
and snow from the Tibetan
Plateau and the Himalaya.
Work has been, at times,
arduous and challenging, but
always fun—for fi lming and
research, documentation, and
television. And every time, I
have been reminded of the
legendary Bhupen Hazarika’s
ballad to his beloved river,
Mahabahu Brahmaputra.
On the Tsangpo in Tibet,
light little rafts of sturdy yak
skin skim the currents. The
roaring rapids of the Siang
through Arunachal Pradesh’s
jagged mountains move into
the tumultuous Assam plains.
Journeys in Bangladesh
have ended at land’s end in
Hatia, the island jutting into
the Bay of Bengal, after the
Brahmaputra has merged with
the Ganga or Padma, joined
the Meghna in a vast union,RIVER REVERIE
A tea garden in
Dibrugarh, Assam.FROM TOP: COURTESY OF SANJOY HAZARIKA; ROBERTHARDING/ALAMY; TOP: THE TRAVELLING SLACKER/GETTYIMAGEStravelandleisureindia.in