Like always, Vimal Murmu was narrating the story of Ramayana to his 5-year-old son. 

“Lord Rama, his wife Sita and his brother, Lakshmana spent 14 years of their punishment in the forests of Dandakaranya [the forests of punishment].” 

The boy eyes raised every time, mesmerised. “Here? They were here? The Gods?”
“Everyone says so!”

Bijapur town is almost at the centre of Dandakaranya forests. The town mushroomed around one main street - the street that connects it to the larger city of Jagdalpur.  Shops stocked with daily essentials, tin-roofed hotels making dosas, pushcarts selling tea and motley taxis were all by the same main road. 

So was Vimal’s two-room house. First room was a kitchen and the second was the bedroom. He was the first generation in his family to live in a brick and mortar construction. 

Beyond the road, were dense forests. The fabled thickset of Dandakaranya jungles.