Wang Shu Shin told me, ‘We had no place to stay. No money to buy food. We stayed in a garage and worked there. Later we bought an old jeep, repaired it and I started driving it myself as a hired taxi. Whenever I got time, I used to go to the enemy custody office and appeal to the officials to return our property. But there was no response. One day, I got news that my father was very ill. He wanted to see me. I went to the CID office to ask for permission. They asked for a five-hundred-rupee bribe. I could not manage that amount. I wasn’t given the permission. I could not even see my father again. I could never see my mother nor my other siblings. One day, the enemy custody inspector called and told me secretly, “Give me a part of the sawmill land and I will return the rest of your property.” What to do! I had to give it away to get back the rest of the property. But where was the money to run the mill! My wife knew how to cook Chinese food. We then opened this restaurant after much thought. Since then things have got better for us.’

I went looking for others from that time.

Doors opened in quick succession. Picking up bits of memories from house after house, I finally stood in front of the door of an old house in Tinsukia. I found another person from that era in the quiet verandah. It was Yao Shen. He looked at me with blank eyes and said slowly, ‘I was told that you would be coming. Sit.’

His wife Kam Ling, wearing a mekhela-chador, came out with a bright smile on her wrinkled face. After talking to them for a while, I sat near Yao Shen with my notebook. I told him about Mei Lin and Lailin. They looked at me in surprise and could not contain their emotions. He did not know the whereabouts of Pulok, Xonpahi and Phulmoni.

However, they pointed me to Eugene, whose father was at the Deoli camp. Eugene gave me the contacts of the people who had returned from the camp. These people told me how they had waited there to go in the third batch. Sometimes, they cried remembering the family members who were left behind in Assam and sometimes, for those who were deported. The wait lengthened. Years passed by, one after another.

A few people had lost their lives, while others waited their turn. Many children were born and some got married.

Then one day came the government order. No more Chinese ships would come. The Indian government decided to allow these people to stay back in India. The camp was once again heavy with the cries of the broken families. The children who were born in the camp stood in surprise amidst the cries.