Of rat holes and claustrophobia

The 15 miners trapped in the illegal shaft in the East Jaintia Hills sadly attest to the fact that little has changed on the ground

This week, a cold dark space in my heart, about the size of a rat hole, cast a pall on the New Year celebrations. For way back in 2012, a conversation with the family of an illegal rat hole miner in the hills of Cherrapunji in Meghalaya had left a deep impact. We’d encountered them while hiking to the limestone caves this area is peppered with. En route, the ground underfoot was dirty black because of surface deposits of coal. After a while we came across what looked slightly bigger than a rabbit hole. Next to it lay a pair