Ours was a big family of eight sisters and three brothers. Though our house was in Calcutta, most of us were born in Myitkyna and grew up in this picturesque hill town on the banks of the river Iravati in north Burma. I was rather tomboyish and most of my friends in the locality were like me. Among my close friends, I still remember Tin Tin and her sister Khin Khin who were from the Indo Burmese Zerbadi community. Often we ? a gang of 20 girls ? would cycle down and invade the orange orchards on the outskirts of the town. Most of us would climb trees and within minutes, pluck the oranges, put them in our baskets and disappear before the caretaker even realised we were there. I have fond memories of bathing in the river and collecting the scented bark of the Tanaka tree. Local girls would use the paste of tanaka like chandan and put flowers in their hair in the afternoon.

We also had a local song- and-dance troupe and whenever VIPs visited our town we would be invited to perform on stage to welcome them. I remember, once the Prime Minister came to our town along with Aung San Suu Kyi’s mother. At that time, Kyi was a baby. Today she is a noted democracy icon. Our town had a Bengali community and we used to celebrate Durga Puja. My parents were the chief organisers and my mother used to cook prasad. I miss those days.

I was quite young when I happened to see the darker side of life. In 1942 when I was only seven years old, the war broke out and we had to flee. My father was a strong man who could speak English like the British and was the unanimous choice as the leader of about 200 men, women and children. From Myitkyna to Manipur, we walked along the Iravati for a month and 23 days. We were robbed of most of our belongings and were scared to death. Like several others, I too happened to witness death, starvation and inhumanity at its worst. At the same time, I remember how the villagers protected us and shared their food and shelter with us!

During the war, we stayed in Calcutta and in spite of the hardships, we had good fun with our siblings and cousins. I was very close to my eldest sister’s daughters and together, we would play and pluck fruits and steal pickles. I also remember that we stayed in Narayangunj (now in Bangladesh) and Madhupur for sometime. I can’t forget the taste of the wonderful sweet and sour fruit called latka, which has three seeds. In Narayangunj, there were so many latka trees that we went crazy.

Once the war was over, we went back to Myitkyna and lived there till I was 14. My childhood experiences taught me to value the little things of life and also to take life as it comes.