Arti Kumari, 22, crouched on a dusty dirt track in a runner’s lunge, waiting to spring forward as soon as her mother started the clock.
Although Arti had risen before dawn to train, the oppressive heat bore down on her.
It was May, and northern India was experiencing its worst heat wave in 45 years.
She, like millions of other young people in India, dreamed of getting a job with India’s central government.
Arti had already beaten the odds and passed the written exams for India’s Central Industrial Security Force, or C.I.S.F., a paramilitary corps responsible for guarding critical infrastructure.
Persons:
Arti Kumari, Arti
Organizations:
Central Industrial Security Force
Locations:
India