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Back Passage West
Chapters (59)
  1. Cover
  2. Dedication
  3. Epigraph
  4. Cast of Characters
  5. Part One
  6. 1
  7. 2
  8. 3
  9. 4
  10. 5
  11. 6
  12. 7
  13. Letters
  14. Part Two
  15. 8
  16. 9
  17. 10
  18. 11
  19. 12
  20. 13
  21. 14
  22. 15
  23. 16
  24. 17
  25. Letters
  26. Part Three
  27. 18
  28. 19
  29. 20
  30. 21
  31. 22
  32. 23
  33. Letters
  34. Part Four
  35. 24
  36. 25
  37. 26
  38. 27
  39. 28
  40. Letters
  41. Part Five
  42. 29
  43. 30
  44. 31
  45. 32
  46. 33
  47. 34
  48. 35
  49. 36
  50. 37
  51. 38
  52. 39
  53. 40
  54. 41
  55. Epilogue
  56. Acknowledgments
  57. About the Author
  58. Also by Rishi Reddi
  59. About the Publisher

You cannot know how happy I was to get your letter. Now I am holding my head up high. At first, your uncle did not tell me about the money at all. But when I indicated that I knew that, with it, he had bought lands in Shahpur, he could no longer hide it from me. Now he has admitted that the money you are sending has made so much possible, also the rebuilding of the barn here and the new home in Shahpur.

I am proud of you, son, and you have given me more izzat in this household. For that, I am grateful. Your aunt has become quite arrogant after the wedding of her daughter with Gopal Singh’s son. To have our family in relation to that one is beyond what she thought possible. But she is kinder to me than before, because it is through your hand that such wishes are granted. Oh, you are my treasure, you are a fragment of my own heart.

I am writing this letter through the son of the tailor in the neighboring village, who has been making a good business of this letter-writing. He is a good boy and from what I can tell, he holds his secrets well.

Your Ma

1 April 1917

My dear esteemed husband,

Will you not come back to me? Today I have already written a letter to you, but I must write more. You have abandoned me, and left me without your protection. How can I go on living? Have you not earned enough to keep this family fed for years to come? Must the responsibility be only yours? You are not even a son of this family, yet you are bearing all the burden.

Forgive me for writing like this.

Theri,

Padma

Part Three

I am a rielera and I’ve got my man

I have a pair of stallions

for the Revolution

one is called Canary

the other is Sparrow.

Farewell to the boys of Lerdo,

of Gómez and Torreón,

the cutthroats have said their adios,

and now they are long gone.

I have a pair of pistols

their aim is straight and true,

one for my rival

the other for my beau.

—based on the corrido La Rielera

18

April 1917

THE UNITED STATES JOINED THE WORLD’S WAR. THIS FOLLOWED WEEKS of indecision, after Germany had sunk four more U.S. merchant ships, and American flags waved on every storefront on every street in the Valley from Calexico to Calipatria. War posters hung on the sides of movie theaters and post offices, beckoning to pedestrians as they strolled past. Every day, Amarjeet followed the news and reported to Ram what he learned: in its quest for Indian freedom, the Ghadar Party had allied itself with Germany, Britain’s enemy, and now America’s enemy too.

RamChandra Bharadwaj, Ghadar’s leader, who had visited them three years earlier, recruiting Valley farmers and drawing Jivan’s ire, was arrested with several others in San Francisco. A month later, he was indicted.