Kalpana Lajmi turns peacemaker for North East

The filmmaker and late Dr Bhupen Hazarika's companion of many years, will carry forward his message of peace and harmony in the region. Will form a team from the industry to visit the place
The music of late Dr Bhupen Hazarika, who hailed from Assam, epitomised humanity and universal brotherhood. More importantly, it was an astounding unifier, bringing the North East closer to the mainstream than any other medium possibly did.
Today, when violence, uncertainty and insecurity plague the region, the singer-composer's soul-mate and companion of many years, filmmaker Kalpana Lajmi, misses his presence the most. Not one to sit idle and watch her beloved's land go up in flames, Lajmi is firming up plans to take Dr Hazarika's message of peace and harmony to the strife-torn region.
She is reluctant to divulge details but we hear, she plans to enlist her friends' Mahesh Bhatt and Ila Arun's help to form a team from the film industry to visit Assam and the North East. Shabana Azmi, who shot the filmmaker's Ek Pal in Assam, and Javed Akhtar, who has penned many of Dr Hazarika's lyrics, are expected to join her.
Kalpana, who is trying to find her way through the North Eastern imbroglio, said, "I am deeply sensitised to the situation in the North-East. Culturally, politically, ethnically and anthropologically, I am not equipped to slip into Bhupen's shoes. But my heart bleeds for the impoverished, distressed victims of the violence. I have to do something. Otherwise, I will be suffocated to death by the senseless anarchy."
Remembering Dr Hazarika, she said, "Alas, the man who sang proud, passionate songs about the Brahmaputra would have been bitterly grieved to see blood flow across the sacred river. Bhupen was a great visionary and a true son of the soil. He showed the North East a path of light, peace and hope continuously for 75 years, and they worship him there like God. He would have personally propounded a message of peace. And now I am trying to walk on his path and honestly, I feel myself most inadequate."