We had not thought that the Brahmaputra would be hard to find. It’s huge, it’s a river, and it’s right there. I had seen it many times in G...
We had not thought that the Brahmaputra would be hard to find. It’s huge, it’s a river, and it’s right there. I had seen it many times in Guwahati, where it is a single channel of water flowing between two banks and the opposite bank is visible, and of course I had seen it neatly marked on maps. After our first day in Dibrugarh, I realised something was amiss.
It was there all right, but it wasn’t a neat, muscular channel of water flowing between two clear banks. It was this thing that had major and minor channels, all of shifting and varied names and identities. I figured that one of these, the most major of the major channels, was the “actual Brahmaputra”. It would have to be tracked down.
So, taking the advice of the friendly smuggler, we decided to go to Dibru Saikhowa to find the river. Our drive took us to Guijan ghat near Tinsukia, where we found room onboard a large wooden houseboat. It was evening, and the sun was setting. The river raced past us, all whorls and eddies. We could hear it and see the odd tree branch or uprooted water hyacinth bobbing downriver at pace....
