Since 1996, I had spent months with Jahnu and others working on the film, travelling along the river, scouring the world for research material on the Brahmaputra, including maps and historic details, networking through the Internet, writing a script, interviewing hundreds of writers and scholars, scientists and engineers, economists, bureaucrats and politicians, and businessmen. In the process of this yatra, I had been to Tibet, with a tiny unit, filming at altitudes of above 16,000 feet and hardly ever lower than 13,000 feet, following the course of the river as it sped towards India; then in Arunachal Pradesh and Assam and finally in Bangladesh, voyaging across the waters to Bhola and Hatia Islands in the Bay of Bengal.

At the same time, I was working on my study of migration. I had always felt that the two projects were interlinked. But I had not expected it to be defined so clearly and in this fashion.

Here, in a flash, the river had rewarded my interest and friendship with an incredible gift. It shared its knowledge of the reality of migration, a problem that has plagued and continues to plague our region. I had not sought this gift but it turned up anyway in the person of Keramat Bhai.

Some may respond to this perception as an example of my own credulity and non-logical approach to matters. But this is part of my larger philosophy—that if you work for your beliefs, you will be rewarded in ways that are totally unexpected and which may ultimately benefit and enrich what you are then working on.

As a journalist with almost thirty years of experience, I also have realized that the best stories are those exclusives which land in your lap without having to work too hard for them—and that too because the other person (or persons) giving the information is prepared to share it at that specific time. Not earlier, perhaps not later. Well, later, the story would be all over the place anyway so it no longer would be unique. This has happened to me in Sri Lanka and Afghanistan, with the riots in Bombay and the Babri Masjid tragedy at Ayodhya, the revolution in Nepal, the insurgencies of Punjab and Jammu and Kashmir, as well as the Bhopal gas disaster.