‘I am listening. Jadob, elections are for MLAs and MPs. Not for mines or anything the government wants to do. That is the law.’ The mahji started laughing again.

‘I know. That is what I told him. But then I thought, we could ask them, we could request the government to have an election. We could go to a court and ask the judge to order an election.’

‘Jadob, have you been drinking? The government itself wants us to go. They will not listen to us.’

‘We could ask the courts, not Behera or his senior officers, or some politician. It is not the same thing.’

‘It is always the same thing. Which judge in Balangir has ever treated a Gond any differently than Behera or Patnaik treat us? And now, as you have said, people think we are Maoists and want to fight the government.’

Jadob’s enthusiasm was beginning to die down. He was silent for a while. Korok sat down next to the mahji. He was actually beginning to get hungry, and was thinking he should go home and cook something.

‘There must be a way, mahji. Let me talk to my friends in Bhubaneshwar. We could go to the high court there. That is not the same thing as the court here in Balangir. Perhaps the judges there will listen to us? We aren’t doing anything else, anyway,’ said Jadob.

The old man swatted an invisible fly and looked away.

‘You do what you want, Jadob.’

‘I will.’

And Jadob went away and got busy. Over the next few days, Korok got to hear, mainly by visiting the mahji’s house, about what had been happening. The first thing that Jadob had told the mahji was this: what the Gonds had decided to do must remain a secret as far as possible. Which meant only the headmen of the other villages were to be told, until such a time when an announcement could be made.

But things had never worked that way in Deogan, so one day Korok’s neighbour caught up with him on their lane and, smiling broadly, said that he had heard from someone that Korok had come with a wonderful idea. The neighbour wasn’t very sure of what this wonderful idea was, but he was certain that it was wonderful because his cousin from the next village had told him and so on and so forth …

Korok didn’t know what to do with this newfound attention, so he hid in the epho’s garden as much as possible for a few weeks. Since this was what he did on most days anyway, nobody commented on it, although Anchita noticed the hunted look on his face. But her offer of cake to him made him look even more hunted, so she was really puzzled about the whole thing.