After 53 long years, Leong Linchi alias Pramila Das of Tinsukia district in Assam, will finally meet her parents in Guangzhou province of China.
Pramila was tragically separated from her parents at the young age of six during the Indo-China War of 1962; her parents were deported to China along with hundreds of people of Chinese origin. Interestingly enough, her mother was actually a Mizo but the police had taken her to be Chinese just because of her facial appearance.
Pramila was at her grandparents’ house when they heard that many of their neighbours were being deported by train due to the war, but when they rushed to the station, the train had already left. However, her parents sent letters to her, and they have also been keeping in touch over phone calls ever since.
She met author Rita Chowdhury in Guwahati to release the English version of Makam, an Assamese novel written by the Sahitya Akademi award-winning author that for the first time focused on the plight of a small community whose roots were in China, but had become Assamese after having spent at least four generations now since they were brought to Assam by British tea planters.
She wrote to the Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh, seeking his intervention for meeting her parents in China, and her long wait will finally come to an end. She was supported by Rita Chowdhury who briefed the Union Home Minister about Pramila’s case.
Pramila currently lives with her husband, a son and a daughter and their families in Kehung tea estate in Tinsukia district in upper Assam.