The group of children giggled. Everyone looked at them. They suppressed their laughter and tried to pay attention to the lecture.

By the time the meeting was over, it was evening. The main street of Makum became lively with the laughter and merriment of the students who were exiting the school premises. There was no trace of any tension; the coarseness of the words uttered against China was absent.

‘Yiu Yi!’ Pulok called out.

Yui Yi, engrossed in talking with her friends looked at Pulok, and said goodbye to her friends. She got on to the front of Pulok’s bicycle with a glowing face.

She was in her school uniform, dressed in a black skirt and white blouse. Her thin frame looked like a toy with Pulok’s strong arms on the handles of the cycle. She was humming the song that had been sung at school.

‘Hindi-Chini bhai-bhai – long live India-China.’

‘You like this song?’ Pulok asked. ‘Why are you singing it over and over again?’

‘Oh! We sang it today – it’s stuck in my head, that’s why.’

‘Is it? Do you know what it means?’ Pulok asked.

‘Our teacher said that the Indians and the Chinese are brothers.’

‘Is that so? But what are you? Chinese or Indian?’

‘Grandpa says we were Chinese years ago. Now we are Indians. Both my father and my grandpa say that my grandpa’s grandpa came here from a place called Canton. I know lots of thing about us, Pulok dada. I will tell you later. What are you, Pulok dada? Where did your grandpa’s grandpa come from?’

‘We, too, came from some other place, much before your great-great grandpa’s time. It could have been from China, I don’t know. We are called Ahoms, also Assamese, and at the same time we are Indians too. When I marry Mei Lin, I will become half-Chinese.’

‘When are you going to marry Mei Lin, ache?’

‘Let’s see. That’s why I am here. My mother has come, too. Want to come with me?’

‘Let me tell my mother or she will worry. I’ll come in a moment,’ Yiu Yi said and ran off.

Cheenapatti now was full of people returning from the meeting, and from work as well. Pulok’s mother and a few of the neighbourhood ladies were seated in Mei Lin’s house. Mei Lin’s father, uncle and aunt were also with them.

‘We should have visited you first,’ Mei Lin’s aunt said apologetically to Pulok’s mother.

‘Please don’t think like that. We would be lucky to have a girl like Mei Lin as our daughter-in-law. We also feel that our son would be the right match for Mei Lin. They understand each other very well.’

‘But would it be right for them to marry, hurting Pulok’s father’s sentiments?’