I learned that the story of the tea industry in Assam was inseparable from that of its migrant labourers. The Chinese community was deeply connected to this story, which had, however, never been properly documented. I wanted to bring alive that obscure part of history concerning the Chinese community in Assam and present it in the form of a novel. But most of the lot who had stood face to face with the stark realities of the time had passed on much before I went about looking for them. For all I knew, they had left with heavy hearts filled with bitterness.

Those who were young during that turbulent time had all grown old now. The rest of them, deeply embittered by the dreadful memories of the time and its insufferable aftermath, migrated to different parts of the world. The battle that wreaked so much havoc on their lives and changed them forever was fought far away from them. They were not remotely concerned with it. Nearly everyone I went to would be dumbstruck as they learnt about the purpose of my visit; they would look at me with contempt and suspicion. But my primary, as also most challenging, resolve was to win their confidence and establish an emotional affinity with them so I might hear from the victims themselves the truthful accounts of those harrowing days.

The agony that had maimed their psyche forever still ran deep in their spirits. Yet, despite all their apprehensions and cautious reticence, they gradually started relenting and began to pour forth the wrenching tales of woe they had been living with for decades.

As they recounted the stories, they would sometimes erupt in pent-up anger and often break into silent sobs of despair, though at times they betrayed glints of joy reminiscing about the happy days. What moved me the most was their unflinching love for Makum – the place of their birth – which distilled through their animated faces, even if for transient moments. They handed down to me, in the process, a rich harvest of information along with some precious photographs and sheaves of documents. During the four years before writing this novel, I had collected a large volume of data from a wide range of sources, including the Assam State Archives, Cotton College, Assam Assembly Library, and a whole host of books and other published material in newspapers, magazines, souvenirs and gazettes. I also fell back on the Internet when necessary, on people with invaluable experience and acknowledged specialists on the subject.

The core of this novel was forged out of this voluminous body of information. As is the wont of any novel encompassing a long span of time, a multitude of people and myriad events, the element of imagination obviously played a very crucial role.