Echoes of the Ganga on the Heart of Brahmaputra

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                                   (With officers of Assam and J&K at Kamakshya temple) 

The officers of Jammu and Kasmir had already reached by the time we arrived at Kamakshya temple. The officers of Commercial Tax Department of Assam, in cooperation with the temple management had made special arrangement for our easy darshan of the Goddess. One servitor of the Goddess escorted us to the sanctum sanctorum.

To reach the Goddess in the sanctum sanctorum one has to climb down eight or ten stairs. The cone shaped room was dark except a lamp near the Goddess. One woman officer from J & K said, “Why the room is so dark?” P.K.Bhat, also an officer from J & K, standing in the queue replied, “Darkness has mystery and mystery attracts the devotees.”

                                                            ( With P K Bhat)

The stairs leading to the Goddess have been divided by a steel fence. For discipline and easy darshan, devotees have to climb down on the left of the fence and after darshan, climb up on the right to come out of the temple. We stood in a queue on the left. One Minister from one of the States participating in the GST Council meeting reached with his assistants. The police looked at the queue on the left, and he ushered the Minister and his cohorts on the right. After their darshan the police also escorted them back on the right side of the fence. We had to keep standing till the Minister and his cronies left the precincts.

I was a bit annoyed for breaking of the rules and discipline, and for the VIP treatment given to the Minister. But the next moment I thought we had also been given VIP treatment. Had we come to visit like ordinary devotees, we would have taken at least four-five hours for the darshan. But we finished the darshan within half an hour. Why should we have any grudge against the Minister, a VVIP?

                                                                          II

The full name of Rupa was Ester Rupa Sahu Jyrowa. I asked, “Rupa Sahu seems to be an Odia name, Ester is Christian and Jyrowa seems to have some connection with a tribe. How can you have such a name?”

Rupa said, “My grandfather was an Odia, my grandmother was Assamese. My mother is from Meghalaya. My name contains all of them. We are Christian.”

I asked, “Your husband?”

She said, “He is a Hindu."

Rupa is talkative.  We were returning from Kamakshya temple on the zigzag road of the hills. From the hills, the city of Guwahati looked like a postcard painting. I asked, “Yours was a love marriage?”

She said, “Yes."

I asked, “Didn’t your husband’s parents object?”

Rupa said, “When we knew each other and our friendship grew, my would be husband told, if his parents would approve we would proceed further, and marry. One day he invited me for tea to his house. On the first meeting itself, his father agreed and then we married.”

“What does your father in law do?” I asked.

“He is a member of the RSS, now a leader of the BJP.” She replied

                                                                    (With Rupa Sahu)

Normally the members of RSS were staunch believers of Hinduism, believed to be conservative and Hindu fundamentalists. But her father in law was broad minded, perhaps impact of the liberal cultural tradition of Assam. Rupa said, “Sir, you are a Hindu, I am Christian and our driver, Rehman is a Muslim. This is real India.”

I added, “You are truly a representative of our pluralistic Indian tradition.”

                                                                       III

After a hard labour of the day when the tea planter reached the club in the evening and said, “Koi hai”, the club boy served the saheb drinks. “Koi hai” had been synonymous with serving drinks in the club culture of the tea planters; and the clubs of the tea planters were called koi hai clubs.

In the eighteenth and nineteenth century, the Britishers imported tea from China and exported cotton and opium. But they had to pay more for tea. To compensate trade deficit they had to export opium four times more. Later, China put restrictions on import of opium. As a result, there was a war between Chinese and Britishers, called the opium war. To meet the demands of tea, during this period, the Britishers started tea plantation on the Brahmaputra valley.

The British planters set up clubs for their recreation. They were playing polo, cricket, and also having drinks in the club to relax. The British ladies came to the club well-attired and played with the gentlemen. These clubs became second homes for the British planters and administrators.

Misa club is around one hundred and fifty kms from Guwahati on the way to Kaziranga. This club was established in 1888. Mainly the British tea planters and district administrators were members of the club. American soldiers had camped in this club for a few months during World War II.

                                                            (With Rajeev Chaudhury)

I left Guwahati for Kaziranga at 8.30 in the morning and reached Misa club at eleven. We had our brunch in the club. I met Rajeev Choudhury, an officer from Haryana. In course of conversation I learnt he was a student of Kurukshetra University where I had done my M.Phil.  He was happy to know we had same alma mater. He invited me to Kurukhsetra and told he would make all arrangements for my stay and conveyance to move and revisit the places in and around the holy and historic city.

                                                                               IV

In the Kaziranga sanctuary we were fortunate to have come across a few rhinos, deer and wild buffaloes. When we were returning in the forest road by an open jeep, our guide said, “A tiger had just crossed the road two minutes ago. It must be somewhere here. It may come out any time. Let’s us wait, we may see it.”

We waited. The guide cautioned, “Don’t talk, and don’t make noise. Tiger will not come out if there is any noise.” The three-four year old daughter of my co-passenger of the jeep put her fingers on her lips to indicate me not to open my mouth.

The sun was readying itself to take rest behind the hills. The golden rays of the setting sun on the tree leaves and water of the channel in the jungle created a kind of magic beauty. The tiger perhaps had come to drink in the channel and having heard the sound of the jeep, had hidden amidst the elephant grass grown in two sides of the channel. I watched the green hills, the setting sun and its glowing rays on the elephant grass.

The guide said, “One will be fortunate to see a tiger in the forest. It does not happen for everybody.”

I asked, “Won’t the tiger attack the man?"

He said, “As we fear the tiger, so also the tiger fears the man. To my knowledge, the tiger has never injured a person in this sanctuary. If tiger’s belly is full, it does not take pains to prey.”

  ( Vivek Kumar, an officer from UP with his wife on Elephant Safari in Kaziranga)

To see the tiger in the jungle was not in our fate. The sun disappeared behind the hills, darkness engulfed the jungle and we had to return without further waiting to meet the tiger.

                                                                          V

Assam government had arranged dinner and cultural programme for the delegates on a patch of sand on the heart of the river Brahmaputra. I had heard about the vastness of the Brahmaputra. We went to the place where dinner was arranged by motor boat. In the dark night, under the starlit sky, the boat sailed making a gorgeous sound on the water. The song of Brahmaputra of Bhupen Hazarika, heard long time back, reverberated in my mind:

Mahabahu Brahmaputra mahamilanara tirtha

Kata juga dhari aise prakashi samanwayara artha

I felt like the song beating my heart. Bhupen was no more; I thought someone would sing

Bhupen Hazarika’s song of Brahmaputra.

( Neelakain, a magazine on culture and literature had published my travelogue of Assam in its March-April issue, 2018).                                                                                                                       

In the cultural programme, Kalpna Potwari, the famed folk singer of Assam sang Bhupen Hazarika’s song of the Ganga instead of the song of the Brahmaputra:

Bistar he apaar, praja dono paar

Kare hahakaar nisabda sada

O Ganga tum, O baheti ho kyon

The delegates of all the States of India listened with rapt attention the song of the Ganga sung by Kalpana Potwari in her sweet melodious voice on the vast heart of Brahmaputra,.

                                                                  *****