If you pass the tiny villages dotting the highway in the Bastar region of Chhattisgarh and meet its unassuming natives free from the trappings of city life, you might say to yourself, “Oh! They are not poor, they are just beautiful.” This first glimpse belies all your notions about the region which has witnessed countless bloody encounters between paramilitary forces and the Naxals, or for that matter, people defying all attempts of the government to bring them into the mainstream.