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I had been back from Nagaland for over a month and from the minute I landed it had been all about stories from this far away land- real unreal, folklore and myths, believable unbelievable ( honest and exaggerated).

Nagaland had been like any other travels, it is quite incredible in more ways than one and we’d been privileged not to be restricted to the towns of Kohima or Dimapur. From Peren to Mon from Mokokchong to Zunheboto, we journeyed the length and breadth of the state in almost a month’s time. Of course we had our fair shares of back breaking journeys, car breaks in the middle of nowhere, being caught in places where no one understood our language and we barely even understood their sign language.

From the minute I logged on to my computer, it had been about the photographs from Nagaland. My colleagues and friends would huddle around, laugh out loud ask several questions sometimes over and over again, of headhunters and keeper of the skulls, of insects and worms that I purchased and eventually consumed, of faces young and old, unaware that they reflected innocence and wisdom that popped up on my screen in succession.

Imitations and enactments followed and it wasn’t me alone, my colleague Damini, who accompanied me on the shoot was as much part of the whole shabang, bringing the distant land into the daily tedium of office.

The past month had really been about looking at people’s faces - surprised, shocked, over-awed, confused, suspicious, repulsed, disgusted and most of all amused!

It was time that I started editing the material that I could not sit on any more. Every morning I would wake up thinking, 'will today be the day I start spinning the web of stories that I had so painstakingly accumulated?'

The day finally came but with a decision - “to save space on the edit system, a lacie would be bought” for those of you unfamiliar with the term - no I’m not talking about a dog – lacie is an external hard drive that stores the data. For me it was the space where I could sit on my footage for the couple of months without having to sweat over threat mails that warn you that you will lose your data. I was confident that I will not lose my data.

My Lacie – the only complete witness to my true love, passion and pride that every shift entailed, my lacie – the only witness to late nights and even worse early morning, the one and only witness to hundreds of hours that had gone by, creating, improving, rearranging, changing and beautifying every frame of the two 23 minute shows I was at the time working on.

We had two shows almost ready and I hadn’t been this well prepared for the past two years. That Saturday was a big day for me – 15 minutes more and my first show would be on tape and I would bring it forth for the whole world to see. The following Monday episode two follows with the same fate and that Tuesday I start with the third.

It’s Tuesday today, past midnight, I move into that Wednesday where I would’ve been relaxed and thrilled. Only now I’m empty handed- I have no show – four days to go and I have no show.

What happened? To be honest, I don’t know – I came into office last Saturday - 15 minutes more and I would’ve had my show, and while I was collecting my tape and making Sunday plans I get a desperate call wait from my editor’s phone – Yash on the other side of the phone – “Neha, I don’t know what happened, the edit machine hung and the Lacie is not working anymore” so if you ask me what happened – I don’t know anything but I don’t have a show.

The bearer of 800 GB data, translating to 80 to 85 hours of footage, the bearer of my beautiful shows, the bearer of my momentary life and pride has betrayed me. The Dark Lord was back!