New Songs of the Survivors : The Exodus of Indians from Burma (PAPERBACK)  | Released: Nov'2015

During the Second World War, many of the Indians settled in Burma were killed following the bombing of Rangoon by the Japanese Air Force. Thousands more were forced to give up everything—their homes, their businesses and shops, even their families—and flee to India to escape the invasion. The lucky ones flew home. Others followed by ship, crossing the Bay of Bengal under constant threat of aerial and submarine bombardment. But most walked all the way, to Manipur and then Assam, braving hunger, disease, wild animals and exhaustion. Some walked the more hazardous route further north, across the Hukaung Valley, which came to be called the Valley of Death. Drawing primarily on recollections from the survivors and descendants of Burma’s once-thriving Goan community, this compelling book is the first attempt to write an oral history of the ‘Forgotten Long March’— one of the biggest and most harrowing migrations in recent history. About the Author Yvonne Vaz Ezdani grew up in Burma, married and had two daughters there. The family repatriated to Goa in the early 1980s and she now lives in her paternal family home in Saligao, Goa. She was a teacher in a Higher Secondary School, with a master’s degree in English literature from Rangoon University and an education degree from Annamalai University. She is now a school counsellor. Yvonne enjoys reading, writing and travelling to visit her daughters and their families.