Last rites of Bhupen Hazarika performed amidst tears
By- Staff Reporter | Date- November 9, 2011
The last rites of Dr. Bhupen Hazarika were performed this morning amidst a sea of tearful admirers at the site in the Gauhati University campus in Jalukbari area, a place close to river Brahmaputra. The last rites were performed by his son Tez Hazarika who had arrived on Tuesday afternoon from Canada.
The final journey of the Bard of Brahmaputra saw a sea of humanity with thousands of people singing his songs, crying out emotional slogans and showering with flowers and petals as his body was being conveyed from the Judges Field to the funeral site. As many as 50,000 admirers gathered at the funeral site with tearful eyes. Governor of the state J.B. Patnaik and Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi were present, apart from the leader of the opposition in parliament and senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader Sushma Swaraj. A 21 gun salute by the Assam Police was given as a note of respect to the singer.
It is to be mentioned that the funeral of Dr. Bhupen Hazarika was postponed to Wednesday from Tuesday in view of the huge turnout of people wanting to pay their last respect to the music legend. More than a million people from all parts of Assam as well as other neighboring states had turned up yesterday in Judges Field where the music legend’s body was kept. People queued up since 3 am, waited as long as 7 to 11 hours patiently to have a last glance of their beloved Bhupen-da.
On the other hand, people were also found commenting about the bias the national media gave to the historic day, stating that although the number of people who queued up and paid last homage to the legendary singer has crossed millions, which is arguably even higher than any other singer-musician of the world, no national News channels gave any importance to the news (except Times Now). A visibly emotional post graduate student of the Gauhati University was found to be remarking If they can not respect our greatest, what we can expect. Another old lady, who had traveled from Sibsagar district to attend the maestro’s funeral questioned Can anyone ever become the next Bhupen-Da? None has an answer yet, of course.
SALUTE TO THE DEPARTED SOUL. MAY THE SOUL REST IN ETERNAL PEACE. I AM THANKFUL AND PROUD THAT THE ASSAMESE PEOPLE HAVE SHOWN TO THE NATION HOW AN ARTIST SHOULD BE HONOURED. ALL INCLUDING STATE GOVERNMENT ARE TO BE THANKED FOE THEIR ACTION. foot note: Rahul Gandhi, Manmohan Singh or anyone never thought it proper to be present on the funeral of the most beloved personality of Assam. Rahul Gandhi could, at the same time as Bhupen Hazarika’s funeral, was scheduled to inaugurate an auditorium in Dimapur and he was in Nagaland but did not bother to pay homage to Assam Ratna. Assamese people should not forget this insult to Assam.
Dear P Das, individual like Rahul who has not any existence (except physical) without the gifted surname “Gandhi”, has not grown up to a position to become a point of discussion while saluting the departed soul of the great artist, philosopher, social reformer, … Bhupen Da. The other ministers / politicians as mentioned by you are busy in calculating their profit / loss in the business of politics. Moreover Rahul, at his own, is not capable to speak a single word without draft prepared by some bureaucrats. It is time to create awareness and willingness in our society with principles and ideologies of great personalities like Bhupen Da so that we get a matured democracy. Only then the politicians / Govt will be forced to acknowledge / recognize the deserving personalities. Thank You