‘It’s very good! What is it?’

‘It’s a special sweet from Bihar that we call motichur. Have some more.’

After some small talk, Nandalal said, ‘Why don’t you give up the garden job and settle down here? With your skill in carpentry, you will make very good money. I have a lot of land at the back of the shop. You can come and settle there. All you have to do is pay me an amount at the end of the month and the land is yours.’

Ho Han smiled, but didn’t comment. Nandalal had been making this offer to him every now and then but he’d always taken it lightly. Slowly, however, a new dream had started playing hide-and-seek in his mind. Sipping his tea in silence for a while, Ho Han asked, a little hesitantly, ‘May I take a few of these sweets with me?’

‘Of course! Why not?’

The cart had already been loaded. Ho Han picked up his bundle of purchase and, bidding Shah farewell, he went to the hut adjacent to the houses of the Chinese carpenters at the back of Shah’s house. Suhagmoni emerged with a little boy. Gone was the glow from Suhagmoni’s face. Instead, a sickly and gloomy woman stood before him. Four long years had passed since the night Suhagmoni fled from the garden with Ho Yen. They had not consulted Ho Han before taking the hasty decision.

The manager of the tea garden had a secret understanding with the caretakers of the ghats of the different rivers. They were given a substantial commission for each runaway coolie they caught. Ho Yen and Suhagmoni were unaware of this understanding. They were caught right away and taken back to the garden. A law had been passed to punish the runaway labourers. The planters had the right to arrest a runaway labourer without any warrant within the district. The managers also retained the right to arrest and punish them. Armed with the law, the manager of the Keheng tea garden brought Ho Yen and Suhagmoni to his bungalow. In the presence of workers and the other staff, he caned and whipped them both black and blue. Ho Han tried his best to save them but failed. Both of them were sent to jail. Ho Yen died in jail. Suhagmoni returned completely destroyed, physically and mentally. She was pregnant by then. The manager threw her out, for he did not want a pregnant woman without relatives. Ho Han took her to Nandalal Shah’s house in Makum, where she delivered a baby boy. Suhagmoni now worked for Shah.

After chatting with her for a while, and giving her a little money and the things he’d brought for them, Ho Han left. By the time he reached Keheng, the work in the garden was winding up. Getting off the cart in front of the crowded opium store adjacent to the garden, Ho Han went to the house where the withering of tea leaves was in progress. He looked around for Dukhi. She was coming out after finishing her shift. She now looked so beautiful – there was a contented glow on her face. With their three-year-old daughter, Dukhi and Ah Chin lived on a different side of the garden now. She had succeeded in slowly weaning Ah Chin off his opium addiction. He now smoked tobacco in a hookah. He had also visited his old home, near Kwangchow in China. Dukhi had slowly changed his life for the better.