There were three kinds of officials to be found at Balangir. The first, the local ones, belonged there and knew the area and therefore did not need a guide or interpreter. The second type was rare. These were senior officials from the east, and so important were they that Collector Behera would do the bowing and scraping by himself whenever they happened to arrive at Balangir. The third type were mid-ranking officials from the east, and it was not always clear exactly how important they were and, therefore, how much importance they should be given by those who ran Balangir district. Taking care of them and showing them around was done on what is known as a ‘case-to-case’ basis. That is, if Patnaik was told by his superiors in Bhubaneshwar to be nice to them, he would. Both Patnaik and Behera were used to getting calls from important people in Bhubaneshwar telling them how to run their district. That, too, was how government worked.

But this bunch of experts, Patnaik had been told, were to do a very important job. They would take a good look at the proposed location of the mine and tell the government, through a long document filled with long words, how valuable the place was.

‘Site’. That was the word everyone was using about Deogan and its neighbouring villages, so Patnaik thought it was the word to be used. Not villages, or hills or forest anymore. It was a site for a proposed mine, and although everyone knew how valuable bauxite was, the visitors would be officially making the discovery. On a case-to-case basis, they were, thus, important visitors.

But there was a small problem. As the summer grew hotter every day, Collector Behera disappeared inside his air-conditioned and very clean office and was rumoured to come out only at night when he went to his official home (which, too, was very clean and air-conditioned). He was, after all, a bureaucrat, which means ‘ruler of the desk’, literally, so he was happy to rule from his desk and leave the outside, very sunny, world to other people. So Patnaik gladly took the responsibility.

The day arrived and so did the experts in a long convoy of cars. They were put up at Balangir’s circuit house, which was a much prettier and more comfortable place to stay at than the town’s best hotel. Not that such important people would be made to stay at hotels. The government was paying all their expenses.