Colaba Police Station

Colaba Police Station is significant in Lin’s story as both a place of detention and the source of a reputation that follows him beyond the lock-up. Months after his confinement there, a visitor’s account of the foreigner known as the Bite of the Tiger reaches Didier, linking the station’s daily routines to the wider network through which Lin’s past is retold.

The lock-up and Lin’s detention

Lin recalls being held in the Colaba lock-up months before a later confrontation. During that detention, another man tried to take his aluminium plate. When Lin encounters a heavyset man later, he recognizes a face associated with the earlier incident, though the resemblance leaves open whether this is the same man or his twin. The recollection makes the lock-up part of the history behind Lin’s vulnerability at that later moment.

Reputation beyond the station

The station also functions as a point of circulation for stories about its former detainees. Didier recounts hearing from an acquaintance who visits the police station daily about a foreigner held there some months earlier. The visitor identifies Lin through the nickname Bite of the Tiger and reports that he was betrayed by a woman. The account carries the station’s memory outward: Lin’s confinement has ended, but the name and story attached to it continue to shape how others understand him.