Drums reach the lanes before the dancers do when Gussadi troupes in towering peacock-feather crowns travel between Gond villages around Diwali. On ordinary days the soundtrack is cotton, with trucks of white bales grinding toward the market yard and gins humming at the edge of town.
Beyond town, forest roads lead south to Kuntala Waterfall, where the Kadem River drops in two streams, and east to Keslapur, where the Nagoba Jatara gathers Gond families each winter. Summers are fiercely hot, the monsoon soaks June to September, and winter brings warm days with cool nights. A Local Friend opens doors you would not have knocked on, like a Dokra workshop or a farm kitchen patting out jonna rotte.
