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Meeting Tej Hazarika
Bikul Das, Stanford University, California
On a clear sunny morning, when the mortal remains of the great Assamese cultural icon Dr. Bhupen Hazarika was raised to a decorated cremation mound on the banks of Brahmaputra, something extraordinary was unfolding in Guwahati, and the rest of Assam, the eastern-most state of India, bordering Burma (Myanmar). There was a spontaneous outpouring of hundreds and thousands of common men, women and children streaming in to the streets, united and fearless. This was an unprecedented event of mass awakening in an otherwise violent and conflict-ridden region of India.
There was this rising hope in the minds of the common citizens gathered around the cremation mound that Bhupen-da (brother Bhupen in Assamese) was about to achieve something miraculous through his death, a process of resurrection in the souls of every Assamese, enhancing the spontaneous unity that he sought to achieve in his seventy years of relentless efforts through music, cinema and poetry.
| Assamese folk did not know if Tej would rise to the occasion of the holy, Vedic cremation process. “ Who is Tej Hazarika?” this was, thus a disturbing question in the mind of the commoner of a terror stricken land, in their rare moment of rising hope for cultural unity. |
But, in that very moment of spontaneous mass awakening and hope, there was just one big ‘unknown’ factor – a tall American, Tej Hazarika, the unknown son of Bhupen-da. This man was supposed to light the funeral pyre to start the process of resurrection of the beloved cultural maestro. But, most Assamese heard his name for the first time. Separated from father during childhood, he grew up in Canada and then in New York, and does not speak the language of Assamese. He kept occasional contact with his father, but spent a “parallel life”. Hence, Assamese folk did not know if Tej would rise to the occasion of the holy, Vedic cremation process. “ Who is Tej Hazarika?” this was, thus a disturbing question in the mind of the commoner of a terror stricken land, in their rare moment of rising hope for cultural unity.
The suspicion and doubt surrounding Tej Hazarika was understandable. Back in 2005, when I got an invitation to meet Tej Hazarika, my immediate reaction was: I never knew that Bhupen-da had a son! Does he share the same love and affection of his father for the culture and people of Assam? I had an opportunity to find an answer to these questions, when I spent an evening at his home in Brooklyn, New York in the spring of the year 2005.
On that spring evening, when I opened the wooden door of an old Victorian house at Brooklyn, a tall man wearing a pair of blue denims greeted me with folded hands. The man identified as Tej Hazarika took me straight to his basement studio where, all of a sudden I was surrounded by various musical instruments including African drums, guitars, and tablas. I decided not to ask Tej anything about his relation with Bhupen-da. Soon, dinner was served and I started feeling at home.
After dinner, Tej Hazarika started singing some of Bhupen-da’s songs. I explained the meaning of several songs, and his singing got more viral, more exciting. We spent hours like that and then, all of a sudden, Tej Hazarika leaned on his chair, his two hands behind his head, eyes fixed on the ceiling. Then he threw these bombshells at me: “Am I really fit to be Bhupen Hazarika’s son? Do I really understand the music, the culture of Assam? I am just not sure about myself.” The moment past, and soon Tej Hazarika talked about how he made the choice to live according to his own life style, independent of his father’s influence. But the moment, the way he was looking at the ceiling, his whole expression took me back to 1992, to a bright sunny morning in Guwahati, India, where I found his father having a similar moment of crisis.
Sitting at Tej Hazarika’s basement, I tried to recall that moment of 1992. I was at Bhupen-da’s home in Guwahati. Bhupen da was sitting just in front of me, looking at the ceiling, his hands tucked together behind his head. It was a warm morning, and the sun was shining bright through a window, near where, another man, an emerging cultural leader of Assam, professor Bimal Bhuyan was sitting. Bimal Bhuyan was my friend who introduced me to the legend. Bhupen-da was working on a plan to re-energize the Assamese youth. As a part of the plan, Bhupen da dropped his filmmaking career in Mumbai to return to Guwahati to instill new energy into Assam Sahitya Sabha, a literary organization having profound influence on Assamese culture. Bhupen da was sure that the Sabha was the right organization to instill a sense of new hope and cultural unity to the terror ravaged Assamese youth. But there was heavy criticism against his plan because some people thought that Bhupen da was not suitable to lead the Sabha as he was essentially a singer and filmmaker, not a literarati. So, the conversation was mainly focused on how to address this criticism, and then decide on a plan to rejuvenate the Sabha. All of a sudden, something unexpected happened. Bhupen da leaned back on his chair, looked at the ceiling, and threw some questions to the air that were something like this: “Am I a writer? Am I singer? Am I fit to be the president of the Sabha? I am just not sure about myself......”. The moment passed, and soon we started talking about the task ahead to lead the Sabha to new heights.
 “Am I really fit to be Bhupen Hazarika’s son? Do I really understand the music, the culture of Assam? I am just not sure about myself.” |
I was deeply moved by that moment, that particular gesture of a legend to express a spiritual crisis of his profoundly creative soul. But at that time, I had never dreamed of encountering a similar gesture shown by a stranger, in a cold basement room in Brooklyn.
Thus, as I allowed my mind to flow back from that sunny room at Bhupen da’s home to the cold basement studio at Brooklyn, my inner spirit felt that Tej Hazarika was indeed the son of our legendary singer Bhupen da. They shared a peculiar gesture, a moment of holistic outburst to express their inner feelings.
So, naturally, I became more curious about Tej Hazarika. I tried to steer the conversation to the philosophy behind man’s spiritual identity. But, I was worried that spiritual discussions might irritate him, because, after all, he was a New Yorker, where religions and spirituality are often considered politically incorrect topics. To my surprise, I found Tej Hazarika was very comfortable talking about the intricasies of spirituality. I took the chance to quickly introduce my favorite topic of Assamese Vaishnavism, an unique cultural and spiritual achievement of Assam, hoping to impress Tej Hazarika with the culture for which his father has been working throughout his life.
At one point of our conversation, Tej Hazarika revealed his conversion to Mahayana Buddhist Buddhism. I found out that Tej Hazarika’s main area of interest was on how Buddhism could be used for social transformation to bring about peace and justice in an unequal world fraught with corruption, crime, and poverty. I was impressed, and then highlighted how our tradition of Vaishnavism has been using poetry, dance, drama and song for revolutionary transformation of societies since centuries. I mentioned to him about the 14th century Vaishnavite singer Narshin Mahanta (Mehta in Gujrati), whose famous song “Vaishnav Jan To” motivated Gandhiji, and about the 15th century Vaishnavite maestro Madhavdev, whose famous book, Namghosha had inspired Bishnu Rabha, a revolutionary communist of Assam. I talked about how, it was Bishnu Rabha who helped Bhupen Hazarika to use song and cinema to bring social changes to Assam. I then talked about why I viewed his father as a Vaishnavite maestro, and why his various songs are like ‘Kirtan’ for Assamese. And, finally I talked about how his father has been using his ‘Kirtan’ to bring equality, harmony and love to an ethnically torn society of undivided Assam. Tej Hazarika confessed that he knew little about Vaishnavism but he agreed about the spiritual depth of Bhupen da’s songs and their power to mobilize people en masse and usher in social transformation. I realized that he already knew a lot about his father, and needed no introduction or a new insight from me. But, he considered himself an American, not an Assamese, and confessed that he has been living a “parallel life” to that of his father, which he recently confirmed in an interview.
That was how I met and briefly came to know about Tej Hazarika in an evening of 2005. And, now, in the year 2011, in my Stanford University office on a rainy November evening, my eyes were glued to the computer screen in order to watch the mass gathering in incredible numbers on the banks of the mighty Brahmaputra surrounding the decorated cremation mound of Bhupen da. My mind was anxious about how Tej da would handle this infinitely emotional moment for thousands of people. I was worried that people might not accept an American if he fails to rise to the occasion. My sister, watching the event at her home in Guwahati called me to express a similar anxiety: what will happen if Tej Hazarika appears in the cremation mound wearing denim trousers, the way he appeared in a newspaper photograph when he landed in Guwahati just 24 hours ago? Will he put on traditional Assamese attire today? Will he be able to communicate with the masses to enhance the massive awakening process of cultural unification of this violence-ridden land?
 “Am I a writer? Am I singer? Am I fit to be the president of the Sabha? I am just not sure about myself......” |
The cremation process moved ahead with the chanting of Vedic mantra, and thousands of people shouting, “Bhupen da amar howk” (May Bhupen brother be immortal). Then, in a moment, I saw Tej Hazarika, wearing the traditional attire of an Assamese villager, standing tall, his hands raised up in the air. Below him was a massive crowd of mostly farmers and youth, their hands raised to touch Tez Hazarika! The gesture of love, the eyes, the whole motion of raising his hands up into the air, the accompanying smile - this was the very same gesture of his father while reaching out to the hearts of his millions of devotees.
Tej Hazarika’s gesture tremendously helped to amplify the momentum of mass awakening, and his devotion to his father spread like wildfire among the masses. After watching the event, and getting updated on Facebook about how happy our youth were to see the transformation of Tej Bhupen Hazarika to Tej-da (brother Tej) while performing the last rites of his father, I sat down on my chair with a great sense of relief and started breathing deeply with a profound feeling of happiness.
Although, the cremation ceremony was a sad moment for millions of Assamese, it was also a happy moment for Assam because that very moment announced the arrival of Tej Bhupen Hazarika to his homeland, his inner Buddha rising to unite with his own people, the centuries old traditions and culture of the land of Assam.
Hope is now rising that many other Tej Hazarikas, separated by conflict and misunderstanding will return to enrich the Assamese cultural and spiritual landscape and build a new Assam. Now, in the era of globalization, when our motherland India is trying to emerge as a global power of stability and prosperity, a cultural and spiritual unity of diverse ethnic groups living in the undivided Assam is an urgent necessity. Thus, I felt that history will define this moment as an auspicious event having the potential to change the course of India’s future.
In the history of nations and civilizations, such moments of mass awakening and outpouring of unity are very rare. Wise men and women seize such moments to take their nations to new heights. The Assamese, including Tej Bhupen Hazarika seized that moment, when they assembled near a beautifully decorated cremation mound at the bank of the mighty river Brahmaputra. As I write this article, the after-effect of that moment is spreading all over India as a message of spiritual and cultural harmony to re-unite the diverse and heterogeneous landscape of this ancient civilization of India blessed with the death and resurrection of numerous cultural stalwarts like Bhupen da. Such moments stimulate and regenerate the Buddha living within each of our souls and make this world a better place.
