"A mute question thumped inside Suranjan’s heart. It was almost dawn and through the cracks in the window, sunlight streamed in. Sudhamoy said, ‘Come, let us go away.’ Suranjan could not conceal his surprise. ‘Where will we go, Baba?’ he asked. Sudhamoy said, ‘India.’ And his voice cracked as the shame swept over him. But he had said it, he had forced it out, he had compelled himself to say that they would go; and he had realized that that was the way it would have to be because the strong mountain that he had built within himself was crumbling day by day."