She thought about the flag. She thought about the Data Quality Officer and the administrative review. She thought about what would happen if she submitted the enumeration and the Directorate processed it — if two hundred and forty-seven people who the official records said had died in August 1947 were entered into the modern census database as current residents of Nandgaon, Chhattisgarh.
She thought about what would happen if she didn't.
She opened a new document on her laptop. She began to type.
She typed the field verification report for Nandgaon in the way she had learned to write field reports over eight years — factually, specifically, without interpretation of what was not verifiable. She described the settlement. She described the residents. She described the enumeration process. She attached the photograph file. She attached the written enumeration forms. She attached the GPS data.
And she wrote, in the additional notes field that allowed for supplementary context:
The historical record indicates this settlement was the site of a complete mortality event in August 1947. The current field enumeration records 247 residents corresponding to the same number of persons historically listed as deceased. The enumeration data was gathered over three days of standard census protocol — verbal verification, written forms, cross-referenced household data. The residents gave consistent, detailed, internally coherent information across all fifty-three households. All residents describe themselves as permanent residents who have never left the settlement. Whether the data should be processed as a record of living residents or as a documentation of a historically significant site is a determination for the Directorate to make based on whatever protocol applies to situations of this kind. The enumeration itself is accurate and complete. These people exist, in whatever sense that is applicable. They have waited a very long time to be counted. I counted them.
She read the note through twice. Then she submitted the full report. Reference number CG-2024-NDV-0847, updated. She closed the laptop. She looked at the hotel room ceiling for a while. Then she turned off the light and, for the first time in three nights, she slept without waking, deeply and completely, until the morning.
