People staying on this farm were divided into two production teams. Each team comprised fifty to sixty people, including children. Both the teams were made up of refugees from India, of which one team was made up of people from Assam.

Mei Lin stopped for a moment. Adjusting her basket, she looked around.

The field looked colourful in comparison to the nearby local farm, as most of them were wearing multi-coloured clothes they had brought from India, instead of the standard uniform worn by the farmers. Most of the women of Indian origin were wearing Indian clothes as they were not mentally prepared to wear the Chinese dress. The Hindu women still applied vermillion. They didn’t eat beef and some of them didn’t even eat pork. However, no compulsion had been imposed on them in these respects.

There was no modern equipment for farming, not even fertilizer. Hence, human excreta was used as a substitute. This was a loathsome practice for them, but it was normal for the locals.

Many of them were still not prepared to eat vegetables grown using human excreta. Many fell sick after having their meals, and from touching excreta on the fields.

Along with these inconveniences, another problem loomed. Though the boundary of the farm had been properly demarcated, the neighbours had not accepted it. They considered the returnees encroachers. They thought the returnees had occupied their land. For them these people were foreigners. Outsiders. The locals were fuming.

The outsiders were living in government houses for free. They got regular wages even if they didn’t work or produce properly. The villagers didn’t have these concessions. The returnees got better food than the villagers. For these reasons the villagers were extremely dissatisfied. They kept harassing the returnees. Some villagers would enter the farm and steal the vegetables and other crops. They even took away their clothes hung outside for drying. They abused and attacked those who tried to protest. They passed humiliating comments on the road and tried to find excuses to fight. The returnees began to lose their patience. Whenever someone said something, they retaliated. There was constant tension in the farm.

They had no connections with the locals. There was no possibility that the bitter relationship would improve in the near future. In this remote part of this massive country, they were living like people on an island.

The famine was over but the situation had not returned to complete normalcy. Since they had arrived, tight rationing had been decreed in their farm, too. They received very little food to eat. However, it was more than what the locals were getting. The government tried to keep the refugees far from hunger.

Mei Lin moved forward slowly. She was tired. She felt the basket get heavier. She was drenched in sweat. Her tired face reddened in the heat.