On 30 October, I went to Delhi’s Kathputli Colony after I was told that the settlement was being demolished. A source from the colony told me that police had stormed in that morning, bringing with them JCB machines to demolish their home. He said that some angry people were throwing stones at the police.

I knew that the threat of demolition had been looming over the puppeteers and other settlers of Kathputli Colony for some years now. When I got there, I did not see any stone-pelting. I saw people scrambling over all the rubble, trying to come to terms with what had happened.