The river is never just a backdrop. In stories by Nilmani Phookan (poet) or Bhabendra Nath Saikia , the river is a force of separation (frequent erosion, changing course), a provider (the maacher bheli - fishing boats), and a metaphor for a love that is simultaneously life-giving and destructive. A romantic meeting on a saal (a sandbar) is always shadowed by the knowledge that the river might wash it away by next monsoon.