Lost in Transmission

10

Chungthang is one of many picture perfect villages north of Sikkim. This sleepy village is a gateway to the highland meadows of the Tibetan plateau. The community is largely agrarian with some business coming from the army battalion stationed nearby and convoys headed to the Tibetan border. There are no cellphones and even the wired telephone coverage is patchy, especially during monsoons. The only stable connection to the outside is a police radio set. This village has a dispensary manned by a trained nurse and everything else is referred to the hospital in Mangan, the district headquarter, which is about 28 kilometer away. Some years ago, a woman was brought with 95 per cent burns to the dispensary. This was a major tragedy for the village, it was abuzz. People ran around trying to be useful, trying to get help from the district headquarters and the....