Letters from Latitude 20°15′ – Part 1: Nitai Mandal, at the lighthouse in Paradip

The Indian Express reporter Ajay Shankar and photographer Tashi Tobgyal travel over 1,900 km along Latitude 20°15', from Paradip in Orissa to Saronda in Gujarat, to pick up four special New Year cards from four special – unknown – Indians. (Express Photo by Tashi Tobgyal)

Nitai Mandal, a security guard at the Paradip lighthouse during the night, sells paan on the beach outside during the day. (Express Photo by Tashi Tobgyal)

If a rubber dinghy slides into this stretch of beach at Paradip any night this year, and 10 men spill out, with guns, grenades and backpacks, eyes fixed on the nearest government installation across the road, the lighthouse, chances are they will run into Nitai Mandal. (Express photo by Tashi Tobgyal)

Mandal is 29, he is one of the thousands of foot-soldiers at the bottom rung of India’s gigantic security structure, and he lives on the most eastern tip of latitude 20°15’ before it leaves the shore and heads into the Bay of Bengal into the southern tip of Myanmar. (Express Photo by Tashi Tobgyal)

Mandal’s wife Mansi (22), his son Basudeb (2), his ailing father, and his partially paralysed mother live in a one-room “jhopdi” about 10 minutes away by cycle from the lighthouse and his cart by the beach. (Express Photo by Tashi Tobgyal)

Mandal has no training in security whatsoever, wears his own pants because the one given to him is three sizes large, does not have even a laathi. (Express Photo by Tashi Tobgyal)

At 6.30 pm, Mandal is in a hurry to push one half of his life into a corner outside his home, begin the other. (Express Photo by Tashi Tobgyal)

A train carrying coal within the precinct of the Paradip Port, Orissa. (Express Photo by Tashi Tobgyal)

Stocking up on crushed ice before going out fishing at a local harbour near the port in Paradip, Orissa. (Express Photo by Tashi Tobgyal)

Fish put to dry at the local fishing harbour near the port in Paradip, Orissa. (Express Photo by Tashi Tobgyal)

Ships and trawlers at a fishing harbour near the Paradip port. (Express Photo by Tashi Tobgyal)

A local fishing in the sea at the Paradip beach. (Express Photo by Tashi Tobgyal)