As the villagers sit chatting under the streetlights that run on solar energy, they cannot stop talking of what it was to live in darkness all these years.

“In 1949, the National Defence Academy acquired 650 acres of the village land. They promised us five gunthas (one guntha is 101 square metres) of land per family if we relocated to another village called Ganapathy Matha, 10 km from here. But they actually offered us only two gunthas and we refused to leave. Since then, the authorities have been blocking all development in this village,” says Pandurang Pawar, a 72-year-old.

So while they are celebrating the new light in their lives, the village does not have a hospital simply because no doctor wants to work here. The village has water and irrigation problems too. “Our wells cannot have motors because there is no power. New borewells cannot be dug for the same reason,” says sarpanch Bhagwan Wanjale.

So while they are celebrating the monsoons, the power supply is back to being erratic because the solar panels don’t get recharged.

While the elders have their own dark memories, the youngsters have their set of challenges to deal with. Sachin Wanjale, 27, travels 15 kilometres every day to recharge his mobile phone. Many youngsters of his age are unmarried just because no one from the neighbouring villages wants to send their daughters to Ahire, the dark village as they call it.

But amidst all this darkness, there have been rare signs of glimmer. “Till date, despite the light problems, not a single student has failed board examinations,” says Suman Bhoj, principal of the Ahire school.