Today, the patients form the only family Jamnaben is left with, and Ansuya, her only home. After the closure of the hospital last week, with her new family members being taken to other places, she now spends her days moving around the new hospital room with her amputated feet. “We don’t know where we might be tomorrow morning. We might not see each other again. But our only concern is Jamnaben. We are the only ones she is left with. Even in her silence, we can feel her muted confusion in this new place and her dilemma on where she might be shifted next,” said Dhuriben, a patient.

For now, Jamnaben knots her cloth bag again, for the third time, keeping it ready to head for home (?). But then she just stands there trying to remember her way back... — Debarati Basu