Tura Friends

My two friends on the road to Tura in Meghalya. Water is precious in Tura. My blue t-shirt friend is carrying water in a beer can. His big brother is carrying the umbrella. Both are helping their mother.

Garo Hills

The contrast between the roads that lead to Tura and the villages are stark. Though Phiding is on the other side of the divide, his love for the Sangmas is evident on his NCP-Agatha-t-shirt. But for many like Nere ( photograph at the top)--a mother of ten living in the remote Chibragre village--entitlement is an alien idea. "We need water, roads. What else do I ask for", she says. Nere stays in Chibrage village in Garo Hills.

Kurseong

Hill Districts

The Hill districts of Assam, where I was travelling before the polls was deceptively quiet during the day of polling. At night this area presents a perfect picture of darkness and despair. Miles and miles of sugarcane fields, dark villages with houses open to the highways, bad roads, bad bridges and the constant fear of being ambushed by militants -- Karbi Anglong and North Cachar injects depression into every soul. It is difficult to realise the idea of election in these parts of India. Some political flags, some wall posters. Before elections, every night the Dimasa militants were targeting trains, killing people. The Karbi militants were abducting people, killing them. Strangely, on the day of the vote, the turnout was a near 60 per cent in these areas, the violence magically vanished. "They've been bought off," said our stringer. Maybe, he was right. After the polls, the violence and attacks on trains have begun yet again. These are some photographs taken in both Karbi Anglong and North Cachar Hill Districts of Assam