The New Bharat

Hope and grand ambition course through the great Indian hinterland even amid the enveloping gloom of rural distress. Catch the winning spirit.

- Raj Chengappa

You can’t take the village out of India. Or me. Most urbanites (I grew up in Bengaluru) have had some experience of Bharat—the other 69 per cent of Indians who live in the hinterland. I have vivid memories of visiting my maternal grandfather in Bhagamandala, in the foothills of Talacauvery in Kodagu where the mighty Cauvery bubbles forth as a tiny spring.