The legwork for every ground report involves a fair deal of planning by the reporter in coordination with the local chauffeur. However, in the middle of a civil war in Manipur, one had to be extra cautious with the planning — every commute between the hills and the valley had to happen during daytime to ensure that the press/media tag on the car was visible from afar.
Discussing the next day’s plan after wrapping up reporting the developments in Churachandpur, my Kuki-Zo driver said we will not be able to start early the next day. On enquiring, he said his Internet was no longer working. He had to travel for two hours to ‘store some Internet’.
Shocked and intrigued in equal parts, I asked him how, even during an Internet ban, he was able to access the Internet. He then explained that every few days, his family and friends would travel in the car for two hours to the Manipur-Mizoram border. They would switch off their locations, turn on the data in their smartphones and access the Internet.
