Catch up with the interesting stories of 2018, from Karnal to Kerala

ET Magazine’s writers travelled the length and breadth of the country in 2018 to bring you interesting stories. Here are some experiences that stayed with them.

A Buffalo Sacrifice
G Seetharaman
WHERE: Niyamgiri, Odisha
WHEN: April
When we decided to visit the Dongria Kondh tribe in Odisha’s Niyamgiri hill range for a feature, we knew the journey would not be easy. To reach our destination, a photographer-friend and I took a flight to Vishakapatnam, then a train to Muniguda in southern Odisha. The final leg of the journey was by road. We drove for a couple of hours but the road turned bad and we decided to continue on foot. Little did we know that it would take 45 minutes to cover the 4 km to village Lakhapadar, and that too in excruciating heat. No amount of water would suffice. Once we reached the village, we saw that the Dongria were preparing for some festival. A few kids were running around a buffalo, which we knew was to be sacrificed. We spent a couple of hours talking to the locals, thinking that the buffalo would be slaughtered after we left. But as we made our way out of the village, we saw that the buffalo was already history, with some of its body parts laid out for a ritual, including the horns. While I was glad the sacrifice did not happen in front of us, I also wished I had not missed a ritual sacrifice.

One Village, 17 Heroes
Shantanu Nandan Sharma
WHERE: Dantewada, Chhattisgarh
WHEN: October

I was home when the breaking news flashing on my TV screen startled me. It read, “A DD cameraperson and two policemen killed by Naxals in Dantewada’s Neelawaya village”. “Oh my god!” I exclaimed. I telephoned an official in Chhattisgarh to verify the news. “Today’s incident took place in the same village you had visited recently,” he said. I had travelled to Neelawaya just eight days ago for an article on villages where voter turnout was poor due to fear of Naxals. Only six of the 702 people under the polling booth had dared to vote in the 2013 assembly poll. I did not expect the villagers to open up, but one Neelima Vetti (name changed) surprised me. She narrated many Naxal anecdotes and said, “I think I will vote this time.” On polling day, I called up an election officer to find out Neelawaya’s voter turnout. “17 votes were cast,” he replied. At least it was better than last time, I thought. Maybe, Neelima was one of them. But who were the 16 other unsung heroes? wished I had not missed a ritual sacrifice.

A New Mom
Suman Layak
WHERE: On a train from Bhopal to Jaipur
WHEN: October

I met 43-year-old Sunil Yadav while travelling on the Bilaspur-Bikaner Express from Bhopal to Jaipur. Yadav, an Indian Railways employee, hails from Raipur in Chhattisgarh, and was the train attendant in my coach. In the evening, as the coach became emptier, the two of us bonded as fathers of school-going daughters. Yadav, a widower, said his daughter lived with his elder sister’s family, in Raipur. Father and daughter meet every morning when Yadav is not travelling. “She is studious, and studies on her own. I will do my best to support her education.” He then turned emotional, saying his daughter has often asked him for a new mom, and he had no answer.

Who Reads Newspapers?
Rahul Sachitanand
WHERE: Bagepalli, Karnataka
WHEN: September

Heading outside of the fish bowl of tech outsourcing companies and startups that swamp the IT capital of Bengaluru give writers on these beats a real feel the segments they cover. On a two-hour drive from the city towards Bagepalli, on the Andhra Pradesh border, to report on a horticulture story, a quick stop at a highway tea shack and a chat with a bunch of local youth provided insights into the next wave of mobile users. Cheap phones and Jio connections ruled, ShareChat and TikTok dominated over Amazon and YouTube. WhatsApp might be omnipresent, but Facebook was already old news in the hinterland. “Who reads newspapers? Everything is available on the phone,” a member of the group scoffed to this dyed-in-the-wool print journalist.

15 Seconds of Fame
Shephali Bhatt
WHERE: Chandigarh
WHEN: October

When you’re meeting a YouTube celebrity at a public place, you’re always taking a calculated risk. What if the celebrity gets recognised and you’re mobbed by their fans? I met popular YouTuber Aksh Baghla at a Chaayos outlet in Chandigarh’s Elante Mall. Midway into our conversation, when a staff member came up to us with a gift hamper, it seemed my worst fears were about to come true. Bracing for the oncoming rush of fans, Aksh and I posed for a photograph of the staff presenting us with the gift hamper. Then came the anti-climax. The staff took back the hamper! They didn’t know who Aksh was. We were mere actors in their promotional photoshoot. My bubble deflated and we left the outlet. So much for 15 seconds of fame.

Unsubtle stubble
Ishani Duttagupta
WHERE: Karnal, Haryana
WHEN: October

Mahesh Kumar (name changed) has a sprawling farmhouse near Karnal. The farmer owns over 100 acres and cultivates various crops. Kumar offered me lassi when I went to meet him. He owns a large herd of cattle. My article was on stubble burning on the paddy fields in Haryana. I realised he owned two tractors and a Mercedes. A well-off farmer, I gathered. So why are farmers in Haryana still burning stubble, I asked Kumar. “We farmers are reeling under the burden of debt, hence the government’s offer to subsidise machinery to plough back stubble doesn’t work. It will only add to our debt,” he said. But doesn’t the smoke affect your health, too, I asked cautiously, eyeing his Mercedes car. “We have to live with it,” he answered ruefully. Later, Kumar even gave us a tour of a burning field.

Strangers in the Floods
Indulekha Aravind
WHERE: Alappuzha, Kerala
WHEN: August

When I met Sarasamma at a flood relief coordination camp in Alappuzha, she looked trim in her orange and maroon sari. The sari wasn’t hers, she confided. It was lent to her by her host, who had been a complete stranger a couple of days ago. Yet, she had taken in Sarasamma and her family at the request of her relative, Renuka. It didn’t matter that Sarasamma and Renuka had learnt of each other’s existence only a few days ago when they struck up a conversation after the former landed at a boat jetty while fleeing the rising waters. Renuka decided that she could not let Sarasamma’s family go to a relief camp, considering that her new friend also had her ailing mother with her. So she approached her relative to give them shelter. At another flood relief camp in Cherthala, Ansamma, a middle-aged woman, was waiting to hear from her son. The young man had brought her to safety and then left immediately. Why, I asked. Because there would be others like us waiting to be rescued, she said. As Kerala battled the flood, a torrent of such stories of overwhelming kindness of strangers brought some relief.

DIU and EU
Malini Goyal
WHERE: Diu
WHEN: March
BEA
In Diu for a solar power story, I accidentally discovered two global undercurrents playing out in this sleepy old port city. One was because of the India-China Doklam flare-up. Fishing, Diu’s main economic driver, was suffering. The catch from Diu is exported mostly to China where they get processed and head to the EU market. After the Doklam stand-off, price realisation for Diu fishermen in China crashed by half. Both the fishermen and the government seemed equally worried. And the second was the Portuguese connection. Almost every household in Diu, a former Portuguese colony, seemed to have a relative in the European Union, thanks to the native’s claim to a Portuguese passport. The result? The residents closely track EU politics.

Early to Rise
Prerna Katiyar
WHERE: Aizawl, Mizoram
WHEN: November

I had booked a hotel in the heart of Aizawl city hoping it would make my life easier. After all, I had to meet a number of people in just one and a half days before my return flight to Delhi. Around 5 am, I was woken up by loud noises outside. Was the hotel on fire, I wondered. I looked outside the window and was amazed: a market was bustling with activity and the majority of the people there were women. A woman receptionist in the hotel later told me, “Aizawl is a 5 am-to-5 pm city.” I realised that most shops were being run by women. It is another matter that their representation in the newly formed government is absolutely zero.