He has lived all his working life by the Yamuna, with his peripatetic soul on the Brahmaputra. As a wanderer, writer, journey man and above all, a chronicler of life and civilisation, Sanjoy Hazarika, ‘dada’ to everyone in the North East, has been on the banks of rivers in Burma, the mountains of Nepal, the jungles of Sri Lanka and the troubled streets of many South Asian countries, reporting for the New York Times for 16 years. But the story of his life has been chronicling, quite literally, the mother of all his stories, the life and times of the Brahmaputra and the lives of millions who live on it, by it, and for it. Once the loveable grizzly bear of Indian-International journalism, the very soft spoken Hazarika could easily slip into the shoes of a filmmaker, poet, writer, philosopher and academic, without exiting his avatar of a journalist who is a quintessential storyteller.

On a mid week afternoon last week, yours truly reconnected with Hazarika in a place apt for conversations – Gunpowder in Assagao. Gunpowder is in a cosy courtyard shaded by ancient trees. In the kitchen, everything that needs to be done to challenge your taste buds and make them leap is done, all in the name of South Indian cuisine. We’ve said this before: Satish Warrier, ex journo, biker, madman and foodie, deserves a gun salute for bringing Gunpowder to Goa. And along with People Tree – a store which keeps the work of very skilful artisans and craftsmen in a collective exercise of bringing a market to the artist, this place 6 Assagao has became a melting pot of sensitive and creative people, especially on Mondays, when the evenings are spent watching documentaries, reading from books and poetry with the author or creator always present.

Hazarika comes here often. His daughter Meghna and her husband, a world class graphic designer, have settled here at nearby Badem, which brings Hazarika, the Brahmaputra river man, close to the Mandovi. The luncheon had a long languid conversation on the menu, spiced with mutton pepper fry with curry leaves, the spicy madras chicken curry and a flow of hot appam, washed down with a beer from Shillong called Magpie. Gunpowder does manage to get perfect cuts of mutton – soft meat and bones, spiced just right, not over, letting the curry leaves do the talking while respectfully retaining the flavour of the mutton. The madras chicken curry does a waltz of the spices and other condiments with the chicken which falls off the bone. As conversations meandered, much like the river which is Hazarika’s life, second helpings were ordered.

In a little over an hour, years were bridged and insights into Hazarika’s fascinating journey revealed realities beyond the realm of his fascinating stint of 16 years as the South Asia Correspondent of the New York Times. His first love, of course, is the North East. Born, raised and schooled in Assam and Meghalaya, his first book, ’Strangers of the Mist: Tales of War and Peace from India’s North East’, was a journalistic bible to those of us who love the region and needed one book to give us a base to do reportage in the area.

If there is indeed a son of the soil and the rivers of the North East, Sanjoy Hazarika is one. To the river he came from and to the river he gives. One of his many social service and charitable organisations runs boat clinics on the Brahmaputra river, where floating clinics with medicines and doctors reach remote places in Assam, treating the sick who do not have access to health care. The Assam government is happy to support it without interfering even a wee bit. “The ministers call me dada and listen to what I tell them,” he says with impish smile.

His next dream, almost complete, is a biggie. He is actually building and setting up a multi-speciality giant hospital on a ship that will be docked at various points on the Brahmaputra river for patients to be treated, operated and admitted. Though he expects some government funding, this will need serious fund-raising, which Hazarika is on to, while naval architects, already commissioned, have completed building half the ship, custom-made for a floating hospital.

Meanwhile, the storyteller still lives in him. His path-breaking documentary, a journey through the entire length of the river, will soon be a book. And what a journey it has been and will be – a 3,000 kms journey through Mansarovar, the place of origin of the Brahmaputra as it flows through Tibet, China, Burma and India joining the Ganges in Bangladesh before entering India through Arunachal Pradesh. And if Hazarika’s pioneering efforts at reaching health care to those who live by the river on the Indian side are accounted for, just imagine the scale of his work.

He looks at each of the eight sisters of the North East as family, taking care to recognise and respect the uniqueness of each sister. And out of this glows state specific documentaries like his latest one on Manipur which he, on Monday last, showcased at 6 Assagao, where we had lunch.

But he never runs out of hats. As Director of the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative, he works on human rights, teaches officials in Sri Lanka and other places how to use RTI as an effective tool, educates media, had founded the Centre for North East Studies in Jamila Millia Islamia and so on and so forth.

Is it any surprise that repeated plates of madras chicken curry and more appam had to be ordered to keep pace with this still young man of 62 and his river tales?