Walking with the Comrades

Description

‘The terse, typewritten note slipped under my door in a sealed envelope confirmed my appointment with “India’s single biggest internal security challenge”. I’d been waiting for months to hear from them.

I had to be at the Ma Danteshwari mandir in Dantewada, Chhattisgarh, at any of four given times on two given days. That was to take care of bad waether, punctures, blockades, transport strikes and sheer bad luck. The note said: ‘Writer should have camera, tika and coconut. Meeter will have cap, HIndi Outlook magazine and bananas. Password : Namaskar Guruji.