Ghosh sat in the front passenger seat, looking at the bridge a few metres away. The Tel, very dry now, flowed underneath. The two men could see the Gond villages across the river, and the sacred hill far away. Two months had passed since the lathi charge, but Patnaik was still not allowed to cross the river. A prisoner in his own district! He would never forgive the Gonds for this.

Ghosh sat perfectly relaxed, as if he was in an air-conditioned car, which Patnaik’s vehicle was not. The bearded man just didn’t seem to notice the heat. He wasn’t even sweating, Patnaik noticed with wonder.

‘They will stop coming, you know,’ said Ghosh, after some time.

‘Who?’ said Patnaik. He wanted to add a ‘sir’. Usually, just to be safe, Patnaik would call anybody important from Bhubaneshwar ‘sir’. He wasn’t sure what he should call Ghosh. But Patnaik also guessed that what he called Ghosh would not make the slightest difference to this strange man.

‘The politicians. They came because the reporters and TV people were here. News moves in cycles, you know. People chase a big story and write everything they can about it. Then they go to other places. They move on. Politicians move on with them. All these people will stop coming here.’

Patnaik nodded. He understood that part. Nobody, except the Gonds, would remain here. Even most of those young people who were camping in the villages had started leaving. But that had a lot to do with the heat, too.

‘Another week, maybe ten days. We just stay quiet and don’t do anything. The Gonds will keep sitting in protest. They don’t know what else to do. It is good your policemen have not gone there.’

Patnaik, who had been wanting to ‘go there’ with his policemen for two months, didn’t say anything.

‘So, here is what you will do. In a little more than ten days, Maoists will come to these Gond villages,’ said Ghosh.

Patnaik looked at his guest. He had not heard anything about Maoists.

‘There won’t be any Maoists,’ explained Ghosh. ‘But you will announce that they have been here because the villagers want to start a war with the government. You will take your men, enter the villages, and arrest the leaders of this protest. The village headmen, the other people who have been talking to reporters. Anybody in the villages who is educated. That is very important. The educated ones are the dangerous ones. Bring them back to Balangir. If there are still any reporters in town, tell them these Gonds have been arrested because they were in touch with Maoists and were planning something violent. Then you put them in jail.’