‘You stand here bowing till the meeting is over. Don’t raise your head even for a second.’

Mei Fung started weeping. Most of the people were paralysed with fear. Lee Chang and the others stood transfixed, their eyes red.

Was there any point in protesting? Protest meant more punishment. More horrible than punishment was suspicion. Being labelled anti-Communist and anti-Mao meant a dark future.

His friends were irritated with Liang. What was the need to protest! At the same time, they were aggrieved, too. It was not right to create an issue over a woman in an advanced stage of pregnancy eating a fistful of peanuts. It was not a crime trying to protect one’s wife.

‘Liang will be kept in isolation,’ one of the leaders announced and then changed the subject.

‘Under the leadership of our great Chairman Mao, the glorious Cultural Revolution is underway in China. This revolution has brought complete change in the communist state system, which has been established under the leadership of great Chairman Mao, overthrowing the Kuomintang rule. To insult such a great leader means insulting the country and insulting a social revolution. But unfortunately, someone among us has brought a bad name to this farm by insulting our great Chairman Mao. Liang Ching Wan, do you admit to this crime?’

Liang Ching Wan stood up. His face went pale. He looked at the leaders in extreme surprise. Standing speechless for some time, he spoke, his voice trembling.

‘I am a Communist. I supported the Great Revolution of China even when I was in India. Even after that I worked in support of the PRC. I am loyal to the great Chairman Mao. I have not said anything against our great Chairman to my knowledge.’

‘To lie is anti-revolutionary. Don’t try to take refuge in a lie. What did you say today? Great Chairman Mao is fat like a pig?’

Shocked to the core, Liang Ching Wan looked at the dais. Silence pervaded the auditorium.

‘I – I said that, sir. But I did not say that to ridicule. We usually use this word for fat people and I unknowingly used it.’

‘You don’t have any right to make such a comment about our great Chairman Mao. This crime deserves denouncement and severest of the severe punishment. Come. Come over here.’

Liang Ching Wan slowly went up to the dais, his heart shattering into a million pieces, as well as his faith and his confidence in Red China.

He silently faced his denouncement. The people from India who did not support Red China while they were there were staring at him.

The feeling of defeat weighed heavy on Liang Ching Wan. He was destroyed from inside. He knew that this was not the end of his punishment. There would be many more rounds after this. He did not know what. He only knew it would be terrifying. Very terrifying.