This is what 73-year-old Harjit Kaur from Punjab listens to on the phone having been suddenly deported to India after spending more than three decades in the United States. On Saturday, she was at her sister’s house in Mohali.“Today I am at my sister’s, tomorrow I will go to my brother’s. I don’t know how I will feel there,” Kaur said. “What hurts me most is when my grandchildren ask me on video calls: ‘Dadi, do you have a bed?’”Kaur had gone to the US with her two sons in 1992. The US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) accused her of “illegal stay” and deported her. The family says she has no criminal record and had been living there for over 30 years. “In 33 years, people get regularised. I don’t know what problem they had. In 2012, I got my first refusal; before that, my case had been passed. After that, I don’t know what happened or didn’t happen — whether the problem was from India or from America. After that, they denied me. I filed an appeal. I didn’t have a passport but I used to report every six months. They never said anything. This time they arrested me. I don’t know why. I paid taxes to that country. I had a driving licence. I had many documents issued by that country. But I did not get citizenship,” she said.When Kaur went to report to the immigration office on the scheduled date this time, she was arrested. “When I went for my routine check-in, the officials immediately arrested me. After arrest, they locked me in a very cold room. When I asked for something to cover myself, they only gave me a piece of aluminium foil. No one listened to me,” she said.‘Treated like a criminal for 10 days’“The next morning, they put handcuffs and shackles on me and took me to Arizona’s Bakersfield detention centre. For 10 days I was kept in different cells. There was only a small wooden plank to sleep on. They gave cold bread with cheese and beef. I told them I can’t eat this sandwich, I’m vegetarian. Then they gave me chips and two biscuits. For 10 days I survived only on chips, two biscuits and water. I had undergone surgery twice, I am old with complications, I take many medicines. They didn’t give me medicines,” Kaur said. “After 10 days, they sent me to India. My legs were in shackles and my hands in handcuffs. Only after boarding the plane were they removed,” she recalled.When asked if she had any idea this would happen, she said: “I thought I would just go, there are many people there, it will take one or two hours. I never imagined they would catch me and keep me there. I don’t know the reason. I only found out when they told me, ‘We have arrested you.’”Kulwant Singh, a relative of Kaur, said, “It is a very painful time. Look at her condition, see what the US government has done. Deporting her at this age is wrong. They did not follow human rights. They kept her in handcuffs and shackles — where will a 73-year-old woman run? Such things hurt the whole family. We are in shock.”Story continues below this adPunjab has become a new place for Kaur. “In these 33 years, everything changed in Punjab — my parents passed away, my young brother passed away, my mother passed away, my brother’s sons got married, and I didn’t come. If they had to do this to me, they should have allowed me earlier to come to India so at least I could have seen my parents and my brother. But this time, the way they sent me, I have no words. What should I say? Where will I live in Punjab now? I have no house, no land, no money. I don’t know what to do.”“In America my life was easy — I worked, I ran my house, I played with my grandson and daughter. But what happened this time, I can’t say. I don’t even understand it myself,” Kaur said. “Today people are still spending 50–50 lakh rupees, but America’s situation has changed. Once America was called the land of immigration, now it’s not.”