Goa, Aug. 2 -- Development dies a thousand deaths each time a little child has to walk through remote villages in the rain to get one bar of connectivity to check her school lessons on WhatsApp

Through the deep dark woods, we walk to get 'connected'

The silence of the forest road was broken by the laughter of a group of children, walking downhill from the hilly village of Verlem, towards Netravali. The walk is long but the kids are nimble. Seeing a car they stop and walk briskly, not quite sure what we aliens were doing in their forests. We coax them into stopping to chat with us. Two of them had mobile phones, borrowed from their elders. On asking, they said they were walking to one spot a, 3 to 4 kilometre walk from their village Verl...