Waters Close Over Us

The Narmada is the only river in India to merit a parikrama. The traditional journey takes more than three years and ends where it begins, having covered more than 2,600 kilometers. Bal follows the parikrama to study the stories of the clash of cultures along the river. It is here that the agriculturist encountered the forest dweller, the Indo-European north faced the Dravidian south, the Afghan battled the Gond and the dam builders confronted the environmentalists. Perhaps, then, it is no coincidence that the Adi Sankara attained the realization of Advaita non-duality on these banks. As the author seeks to understand whether such reconciliation is possible in every case, the stories he encounters take on a life of their own from Osho's relatives who still safeguard his memory in sari shops to the king of a small island who spends moonlit nights firing bullets into the river.