The clash between Lin and Big Rahul begins when a rare moment of private concentration in prison is interrupted by the overseer’s violence. It becomes a test of how far Lin will resist and what the authorities are willing to do to reassert control: when the overseers turn their punishment on other prisoners, Lin gives himself up to spare them, only to face hours of beating and further restrictions.

The writing interrupted

By this point, Lin’s frustration, dread, worry, and pain have accumulated over time. Big Rahul, an overseer who has focused his own hatred and misery on Lin, strikes him while Lin is sitting near the entrance to an empty dormitory. Lin is attempting to put on paper a short story he has composed in his mind over the preceding weeks, repeating its lines day after day so he can remember them. The writing is not simply an attempt to pass the time: the practice has served as one of his meditations and helped him remain sane.

That morning, Lin has managed to find a pencil stub and a small sheaf of discarded sugar-ration wrappers. The makeshift materials make the start of writing possible at last. He begins in a quiet moment after collecting Sheppesh, only for Big Rahul to approach unseen and hit him. The interruption thus destroys more than a brief interval of calm. It falls on a fragile routine that Lin has built to preserve a part of his inner life within the prison’s constraints.

Lin’s resistance

Lin rises and takes the stick from Big Rahul, then drives him backward into the empty room. He throws the stick through a barred window, removing the instrument of the first assault from the immediate confrontation. When Big Rahul reaches for his whistle, Lin kicks him and follows with a series of punches. The fight unfolds as a deliberate reversal: the overseer who has been using violence against Lin is forced to retreat, while Lin presses forward.

In the middle of the confrontation, Lin recalls the first rule of street fighting: stand one’s ground rather than retreat, except when preparing a counterattack. That remembered rule gives the exchange a practical frame, and the prison room becomes a place where knowledge acquired beyond its walls can still be used. But Lin’s resistance cannot determine the terms for long. The other overseers gather, hesitate, and confer in whispers. Their response shifts the conflict from a direct clash between two men to a coordinated exercise of authority.

Prisoners used as leverage

Instead of immediately bringing guards, the overseers fetch ten prisoners from Lin’s room and order them to sit facing him. They beat the group, send those men away, and bring in another ten. The violence is now being used not just against Lin but as a means of making him watch what his continued resistance will cost others. The overseers repeat the procedure, turning the prisoners into leverage.

Mahesh is among the next group. Also facing Lin is one of the two men who had already been beaten and given an additional six-month sentence for trying to help him. The prisoners do not speak, but their looks plead with Lin. At that point, he lowers his hands and steps out of the corner. This is the decisive turn in the confrontation: Lin stops fighting not because the overseers have persuaded him that the punishment is just, but because they have made other prisoners bear its immediate cost.

The overseers seize him, drag him to a barred steel gate, and chain his outstretched wrists to it with two sets of handcuffs. They tie his ankles together with coconut-fibre rope. The restraint makes his submission permanent for the moment and gives the overseers control over what follows. His choice to spare the other men does not end the punishment; it leaves him alone to receive it.

Punishment and its aftermath

The beating begins with Big Rahul and continues as other overseers take over. After a break for cigarettes, the assault resumes with fresh groups arriving from other rooms, followed by further relays of men. The account marks its duration precisely: it starts at ten thirty in the morning and continues until eight that night. The changing groups make the punishment seem organized and sustained, rather than a brief eruption of anger by one overseer.

Afterward, the authorities state the terms imposed on Lin: he is to wear chains on his legs, and his food ration is cut in half until further notice. They explicitly connect the punishment to his having hit the overseers, presenting it as a lesson intended to prevent another act of resistance. The result extends beyond the hours of beating: Lin is left with continuing physical restraint and less food, while the overseers assert that the encounter will carry consequences beyond the room.

The episode places Lin’s practiced self-command beside the limits of individual defiance in prison. Repeating a story, finding paper in discarded wrappers, and relying on remembered fighting rules are distinct ways he tries to retain agency. Yet the overseers answer his resistance by exploiting the vulnerability of the people around him. His decision to yield for their sake becomes both a moral choice and the opening through which the prison imposes its punishment. The scene’s central reversal is therefore not simply that Lin fights back, but that he must choose between continuing the fight and preventing the authorities from using other prisoners to force his hand.