And those coolie depots? Men and women all placed in the same rooms filled with urine and faeces that flowed through the holes. Half of the captives died. But Dukhi survived. She had survived to die a slow death.

Time had gradually made them accept their reality. The environment of the garden had changed to a great extent in these years. Now there were rows of coolie quarters, staff quarters and spacious thatched bungalows for managers, assistant managers and superintendents. Beautiful nahar trees were planted by the roads. The manager, doing his rounds on horseback with his shining steel-tipped whip, was a common sight and the whip spared not a soul who tried to stay away from work.

The Babu lines, where the clerks and the in-charges of different departments lived with their families, had nothing to do with the coolie lines; there were strict rules prohibiting any kind of close contact between them. It was the same with the managers and assistant managers – a distance had to be maintained at all times between different hierarchies. The only exception to all these rules were the Chinese. In most of the tea gardens, there were just three to four Chinese men. They operated and repaired garden machinery, made furniture and built houses. They were housed separately with special amenities.

The Chinese were now a relatively contented lot. Some started doing contract work in the tea gardens and brought in more Chinese workers to help them. They often had get-togethers at which they cooked Chinese food. Gradually the place began to feel like home to them. Most of the workers had started speaking a different dialect: a mix of the languages of different provinces of British India along with the local language and Hindustani. This made communication easy between the Chinese and the Indian coolies. The first marriage between a Chinese and an Indian coolie, Ah Chin and Dukhi, was due to take place. Ho Han was the main coordinator of the wedding. He had become popular in the coolie lines because of his patience, earnestness and gentle nature. Everyone sought his advice in times of crisis.

Today, everyone was joyous in the garden. No one had any objection to the marriage. Rather, everyone was happy that two lonely people had found their partners. The labourers, even though they were busy with work, were eagerly looking forward to the festivities. The happiest was Ho Yen. He was still the same quiet slave who used to follow Ho Han. He still did whatever Ho Han asked him to do. These days Ho Yen didn’t work in the factory. He looked after the saw mill of the garden which had been brought from England a few years back. It was actually a saw bench, run with the help of a steam engine and a boiler. This was used to make planks for the tea chests and to make materials for the construction of houses. At this moment Ho Yen was working in the shed.