Of idyllic landscapes and slow boats on the Ganges

Of idyllic landscapes and slow boats on the Ganges, a set on Flickr.

Inspired by Paul Robeson’s Ol’ Man Mississippi, the late Bhupen Hazarika’s most famous legacy is his ballad to the Ganga as being a faithful observer to the paradigmatic changes that take place around it and about it. His passionate appeal to the Ganga to not remain a static observer to the degradation of humanity around it engenders a pathos to the idea of this might river. But the Ganga is no mere observer, as many would argue, that rivers have an organic economy of their own that come into being in the interaction of people around the river with it.