Holding the handles of the door with his hands, Chi Fu Hai stood without moving.

‘Get down, Baba,’ his son told him from the platform.

Chi Fu Hai stood still, blankly looking outside.

‘Baba. Get down. People are waiting.’

There was no answer.

‘Hey, what’s happening? Get down. Get down,’ one guard shouted, banging his stick on the coach. ‘Hey, old fellow. Get down I say.’

When Chi Fu Hai failed to respond, the guard pulled him down. Chi Fu Hai fell face down on the platform. People surrounded him. His son turned him around and cried out. He was dead.

A group of guards came forward.

‘Hey. Move. Move. What happened?’

‘My father is dead.’

‘Move. Let us see.’ They surrounded the dead body.

One of them poked the body with his stick and said to his companions, ‘He is dead for sure.’

They stood silently for a while. Then one of them said harshly, ‘Okay. We will take care of the body. Now you move along.’

‘How can I leave my father behind? I won’t go. I have to bury –’

‘The government will bury your father. You don’t have any business being here.’

The guards pushed the people forward. As soon as they exited the station, the abuse and the stone-pelting commenced. The captives silently boarded the buses. By the time they reached the high-walled compound, it was almost dusk. There were a few sentry posts on the perimeter of the compound, barbed wire all around, and a crowd outside. The captives looked at the compound with endless surprise.

‘Do we have to stay here? In this walled enclosure?’

The captives stood in a line.

‘Look! Chinese spies.’

‘From where have you brought them? Thrash them properly.’

‘Hey small-eyed people – you have destroyed our country.’

‘Beat them. Beat the bloody betrayers.’

Wenling stopped and looked at the crowd, trying to control her anger.

‘Why are you looking at me like that? Do you want to marry me? Go. Go. Your graves will be dug on the plains of Tibet.’

Wenling lost her patience.

‘What did you say? Say that again. Come. Fight with me. Fight like a man. We are not thieves. Understood? You think I am scared? Come fight with this woman.’

Her husband pulled her back but she wouldn’t stop speaking her mind.

‘You are cowards. All of you. What does the Indian government think of us? That we are spies? My father may be Chinese but my mother is Indian. We don’t betray our country. Got it? Now come and fight.’

The guards came forward angrily.

‘Shut up, or else …’

‘Or else what? You will kill me? If we are the enemy of this country then come finish us.’