‘Don’t write to me. My family doesn’t like it. Your letters are opened by the CID. Government officials come to our house to ask about you. My father is a government official. He may lose his job. They may even arrest him. Please forgive me, Ameng.’

Lee Chang came near him and said gently, ‘Liang’s parents did not come. They stayed back in Nowgaon jail.’

Ameng looked at Lee Chang. Controlling his emotions, he went with Lee Chang to meet Liang. Standing in a corner, Liang was weeping silently.

‘Liang!’ Ameng took one of Liang’s trembling hands into his and said slowly, as if consoling himself, ‘There is nothing we can do.’

The people outside were pleading with the officers to allow them to handover the things they had brought for their departing relatives.

‘No, no permission. Go back. You are not allowed to meet them.’

Clutching the ropes of the barricade, they kept weeping. The bright day darkened under a shroud of sadness.

Mei Lin was numb. Her name was now on the list of deportees. She was now one of China’s people. There was no way to strike her name off the list. There was no time. This country had told Mei Lin to leave. A country that could put these Indian women in a Chinese ship with sheer indifference and chase away the children of an Indian mother – what was the sense in appealing to that country, asking for space for a tiny foetus?

The ship was waiting. The government officials had ordered them to move out. The buses were ready to leave for the port.

Removing Mei Lin’s hand, her father left without saying anything. All her friends left too.

‘Move. Move. Hurry Up. Move fast,’ the armed guards commanded.

Pramila Gogoi took Mei Lin in her arms.

‘Let’s go. There is nothing we can do to change things now.’

Rows of people went out of the hotel towards the waiting buses, while the people beyond the police barriers looked on in dismay. They were still holding the bundles they had brought.

‘Move. Move. Keep moving. No permission to talk. Move, move!’

They were never meeting again! Their dear ones were leaving the country forever! No way out! Simply no way! They were nothing but particles of dust, undesired weeds in the great garden called the state.

Who would give them justice? Where was the humane leadership? Where was the wise guardian?

There was no one anywhere. There was no hope. Not even a speck of soil to stand on.

They looked from beyond the barricade to the procession of people fading out of sight.

Left behind was a part of their divided soul. A part of their divided heart and divided identity! This was a foreign state now, an enemy of China. No doors were left open for return! No passage back to their dear ones! No gateway to their own society!