‘Mei Lin ache is down with fever. Lailin has taken her to the hospital. She has asked me to take you to the function. They will join us there. We will have to go straight to the function or else we will be late.’

Pulok’s face turned grim instantly. He looked at Arunabh uncertainly.

‘Let us go there now, uncle, or else we will be late. This is Yiu Yi’s cousin, Babu.’ Looking at Babu, Arunabh said, ‘This is Pulok Baruah.’

‘Pulok dada!’ Babu looked at Pulok, his eyes wide with surprise.

Pulok was also looking at Babu with faint recollection.

Who was Babu? Who was he? The name sounded so familiar.

‘You have forgotten, right? We met in Makum. Do you remember Yiu Yi? I was a child then. Now I have become old. You have also become very old, Pulok dada. Do you know how many years have passed? Forty-nine years!’

Pulok looked at Babu’s face listlessly. A group of cheerful children in new and colourful clothes appeared before his eyes. He could hear a little girl, with a bright face and in a beautiful dress, calling, ‘Pulok dadaaaa!’

‘Where is Yiu Yi?’ Pulok asked restlessly.

Yiu Yi!

Babu stopped for a moment and said, ‘Don’t you know about her?’

‘Don’t know? What do I not know?’

‘Yiu Yi is no more. She died of sunstroke at Deoli camp.’

Arunabh put his hand on Pulok’s shoulder. Pulok didn’t say a thing, but he felt his body tremble.

Babu’s wife was waiting outside, near their car. She was the youngest daughter of Ajoli Sonowal. She folded her hands and greeted Arunabh. Then she looked at Pulok in surprise.

‘He is Pulok Baruah. Mei Lin ache’s husband.’

Mei Lin ache’s husband! They knew about Mei Lin’s life. They were together at Hua qiao Nongchang. Slowly, as realization dawned, Ajoli’s daughter smiled, but there was sorrow in her eyes. She folded her hand and said slowly, ‘After so many years.’

In the car, no one uttered a word.

As they went along, an Assamese song started playing on the stereo.

‘How do you know of this song?’ Arunabh asked, surprised.

‘We got it from Assam. Our relatives sent it from there,’ Tunu said.

Pulok looked at Tunu, not sure what to make of this. Babu smiled and said, ‘Tunu’s mother was Assamese. She is no more.’

‘Ma wanted to visit her home at least once. Our house was in Darrang. She died in grief from not being able to see her home one last time.’

‘Many old people died from the same grief. Do you remember my mother, Pulok dada? Her name was Parbati. She didn’t smile even once, from the first day she arrived in China. Eventually she died.’

Arunabh sat silently, his heart pounding. His mother’s voice echoed in his head, ‘Where you are planning to go – these are also your own people, son.’