ABSTRACT
As I was winding up fieldwork for this book, I met a friend from Nagaland studying for her PhD in Delhi. Julee and I sat on a wonky table in a university cafeteria while she quizzed me about this research. I laid out the story I wanted to tell piece by piece. I sketched the trajectory on the table by moving spilled grains of sugar to show the different parts of the story — a small pile here for what was happening in the Northeast, a small pile there for what was happening in Delhi. Our tea overflowed while the table wobbled and my entire structure slowly trickled into a milky sugary mess. Julee asked, ‘Is this mess the Northeast or Delhi?’ I mumbled some non-committal answer and she said, ‘Make sure it is Delhi: I am tired of people talking about the mess in the Northeast.’
