stories

“Run! The Police are coming! Run!” The entire village was alarmed with the news of police coming to their village yet again. Dandakaranya is not new to the police raids. Still, every time the police enter any village, the villagers, including the babies, are afraid of their arrival and the baggage of humiliation, abuse, and harassment that comes with them. The moment these words fell in the ears of the

My name is Ungi, and I am eighteen years old. My family lived in a village near Geedam Town in Dantewada district, Chhattisgarh. We lived a life where we had to work hard just to survive. If we didn’t find work on some days, we would go hungry. Despite his old age, my grandfather too would go out for daily labour. Since my mother didn’t have enough milk, I used

The students of ‘Comrades Devaraj - Ajita Political School’ got up for their lunch and filed out of the class tent. As soon as ‘MoPos’ guruji Chaitey came out of the tent, Swaroopa who was sitting on a stone nearby got up with the shout ‘Lal Salaaam didee (red salute comrade)’,  shook her hands with her and hugged her. Smiling happily in return, Chaitey asked, “When did you arrive? You

“BheemjiHajir ho... (Mr.Bheem present yourself) SuniljiHajir ho... (Mr.Sunil present yourself) JuliejiHajir ho...” (Ms.Julie present yourself) The court attender shouted loudly, so his voice echoed from the court entrance to the far end of the veranda. The entire veranda was bustling with activity. Above the entrance, there was a board written in Hindi indicating that it is the honorable judge K.N. Srivatsava's court, Court No. 4. There were many such courts

It was 4th April 1998. I can never forget that dreadful day in my life. All the happenings of that day and the events leading to it, and how I came out of that death hole are still fresh in my memory even after three and a half years. We had joined the squad just a month and a half ago. Before that we were doing some tech (technical) work

Yellamma filled water in her old bottle and gathered the old and torn hand towel and a rope to tie up the firewood that they would gather later in the day. She slung the bottle across her shoulder and called out to Suseela who lived in the hut adjacent to theirs, “Come Suseela, it is getting hotter”. At about the same time Suseela started out of her hut, looking back