The interviews and reporting for this story were conducted in November 2019. In the quaint hamlet of Gopinatham, located in Karnataka’s Chamarajanagar district, the name of P Srinivas, the an IFS officer was martyred in a brutal assassination by Veerappan on 10 November 1991 still reverberates in the hearts of the villagers. “We are very…
“Standing on that stage in Tokyo, hearing our name called out as sixth among twenty-one teams, my voice caught in my throat,” reflects Sharun Arora, the emotion in his voice unmistakable, even through the crackle of a long-distance call. “It felt like every moment, including decades of volunteering, planning, and purposeful weekends, had converged into…
The floods in Punjab have turned once-bustling villages into islands. Families huddle on rooftops, livestock wades through chest-deep waters, and cries for help echo across submerged fields. Rescue teams battle the rising current, but the scale of devastation is overwhelming. In Kapurthala, businessman Pritpal Singh Hanspal was watching these scenes unfold. Owner of Hanspal Traders,…
“What are you doing here? This job is not meant for you. We are still at port. You can go back home.” These were the first few words that Romeeta Bundela heard from her manager as she stepped foot on a Maersk ship on her first day at work in December 2017. Being the first…
