We are in conversation with Mirza Zulfiqur Rahman. Currently, he is a Visiting Research Associate at the Institute of Chinese Studies (ICS) and holds a PhD in Development Studies from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) in Guwahati. He specialises on border studies in Northeast India and transboundary water sharing and management issues between China, India, and Bangladesh, and is deeply committed to grassroots based alternative community work and development models.

In this episode, Mirza speaks to us about his experience as a researcher on this frontier river, and the associated challenges of this work. He speaks to us about, what he calls, a riparian responsibility of the government as well as citizens who live next to this river to cause minimal harm to the water body. We talk about the catastrophic nature of floods in the region and the role that human intervention has played in it, and finally, his vision for an interdisciplinary future of research on this meandering river. Through this conversation we also uncover, in some ways, the pull of the river and what made Mirza start and continue this work on the Brahmaputra.