Jadob’s friends put in a lot of money—fighting a case in the Supreme Court would not be cheap—and got a team of very good lawyers, including their friends. This team guided Jadob and his friends in deciding which documents were important, and how to write the request in a way which would make the judges of the Supreme Court at least listen to the Gonds. Jadob explained this process in detail to Korok, who was very happy with it, even though he could not understand it completely.

One day, very quietly, two of Jadob’s friends visited Deogan. It was a very short visit, and they had to take all kinds of routes from Bhubaneshwar to make sure Patnaik, or the policemen he had posted everywhere, did not know of them. They met Jadob and the others at the mahji’s house and discussed the plan. Korok had also been invited, and had taken another of his special baths and looked very shiny.

Jadob’s friends were a man and a woman. The woman had grey hair and a frown, but she had very kind eyes and looked like an older version of Anchita’s mother. The visitors shook hands with Korok and said, very seriously, that they were very pleased to meet the person who had come up with the idea of voting for the mine. They said it was a wonderful idea and they wished they had thought of it themselves.

Korok burst out into one of his rare grins. He got even more embarrassed when the mahji told them the boy was the best gardener in these parts. The mahji was still not sure that the idea would work at all, but since the young people including Jadob were so keen on it, the headman thought he should go along with them.

The visitors went through all the documents and said this was the best chance the Gonds had, and they were all ready to fight it out in the highest court of the land.

Some days later, Jadob packed a small and battered bag and left very quietly by road to Koraput. From there he travelled to Bhubaneshwar and met his old friends. A group then left for Delhi. Korok was told all this by the mahji, who was the only link between the group outside and the Gonds now.

The Supreme Court is a very important place, and only serious matters are put up here. As with every other court in the land, judges are few and cases are many, so it takes a long, long time for anything to happen. But Jadob and his group filed their request, in what was called a ‘petition’.