Sri Lanka is significant in the narrative less as a directly depicted setting than as a homeland marked by conflict and remembered through the displacement of Krishna and Villu. Their account traces a route from a village destroyed in fighting to life as refugees in Bombay, where survival and English literacy eventually lead them into Abdul Ghani’s passport-forging operation.

Conflict and displacement

Krishna and Villu are Tamil Sri Lankans from the same village on the Jaffna Peninsula. The conflict between the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam and the Sri Lankan Army obliterates their village, and almost all members of both families are killed. Sri Lanka is thus presented through the rupture of home and family rather than through a sustained description of the country itself.

The two men escape with Villu’s sister, a cousin, Krishna’s grandparents, and Krishna’s two nieces, both under five. They leave by fishing boat on a people-smuggling route between Jaffna and the Coromandel Coast, reaching India and making their way to Bombay. The journey carries a surviving remnant of their families away from the destruction, but does not immediately bring security: in the city, they initially live on a footpath beneath a sheet of plastic.

From refugee survival to skilled work

During their first year in Bombay, Krishna and Villu support themselves with poorly paid day labor and petty crimes. Their ability to read and write English changes their prospects when a neighbor asks them to alter a license document. The quality of their work brings more customers to their makeshift shelter, turning a precarious skill into a livelihood.

Abdul Ghani later recommends them to Abdel Khader Khan, who gives them an opportunity to prove themselves as forgers. By the time Lin meets them two years later, the two men have moved from the footpath into a comfortable shared apartment with surviving family members. They save money from generous salaries and have become among the most successful passport forgers in Bombay. Their ascent does not undo the losses that drove them from Sri Lanka; it shows how refugee displacement, practical ability, and a chance offered by an underworld network combine to reshape their lives.

Narrative significance

The account makes Sri Lanka present through consequences that extend beyond its borders. The destroyed village and the dangerous sea passage are recalled in Bombay, where the survivors’ expertise becomes part of the city’s counterfeit-passport trade. Their story links political violence and family bereavement to migration, informal labor, and the search for mobility and security.

For Lin, the meeting also begins a friendship and offers access to knowledge he wants for his own mobility and security. Sri Lanka’s place in the narrative is therefore twofold: it is the origin of Krishna and Villu’s forced departure, and the distant conflict behind the lives and skills they carry into Bombay.