They were very interested in water and where Korok got it from. He pointed to the big old earthen pot in the kitchen and told them there was a well down the lane he shared with a few other families. His visitors shook their heads and whispered some more. Then they told him they would return soon, but meanwhile, he was not to cook anything fermented. Then they walked away.

Korok did not think much about it till a week or so afterwards, when half the world descended on Deogan. Long convoys of cars started arriving from the early morning, workers finished putting up a small stage next to the mahji’s house and party flags were everywhere. The local politicians from Balangir returned, and so did Korok’s two visitors. To his secret joy, they even remembered his name and everything else about him, except the earthworms in his backyard.

They also set about changing his house, or at least his kitchen. First his goat was pulled out from under the bed where she had been hiding, as usual, and taken to Korok’s potato field and tied up under a shrub. The animal spent the rest of the day eating the leaves of the shrub and did not complain.

The old beaten pots and plates were taken away from the kitchen, but Korok managed to hide them under his bed. These were replaced with shiny new aluminium utensils bought from Balangir. The only casualty of the day was Korok’s old clay water pot, which was cast aside to a corner of the backyard where, Korok discovered, someone had trampled it to bits in the rush throughout the rest of the day. It was replaced with a new clay pot which looked out of place to anyone familiar with a Gond kitchen, because it was bare. All water pots had to have a decoration of opposite facing triangles over wavy lines, done with white plant sap, running around the neck of the pot. But everyone was in a hurry and Korok was once again hypnotised by the sunglasses so he forgot all about this.

But there was more. His new friends had got fried vegetables, which they made him put in the new pot and get a fire going, but only a low fire so the kitchen would not fill up with smoke. They also had warm rotis, which were stored neatly till the time came. They filled the water pot from mineral water bottles of a type Korok had never seen before. He was also warned not to dip his hands into the pot while they weren’t looking.