In 2010, Pillay established contact with the village to find out what happened to the children who were injured. The villagers, who had no idea that had Pillay survived, invited him to Longdipabram. It is then that I travelled with him to the village. The reunion was overwhelming. At the village grounds where the residents organised a homecoming of sorts, Pillay met the children, the mother of the children, the village headman and, in a dramatic moment, even the militant who had fired at him. The two men embraced each other, in what is probably one of the most telling moments in the narrative of counter insurgency.