As the farmers' protest came to a victorious culmination on Thursday, 9 December, farmers who had gathered at the borders of Delhi are preparing to return home after 378 long days.
Yet, even as they look to return home after a period 15 months, it is with heavy hearts that they bid adieu to their friends who had become family during the protest.
"These are tears of happiness. We are going home victorious. We have prevailed on the hearts of people. We will go to each shop at the Tikri border and ask them if we have upset them, or owe them anything. We will hug every one of them before we leave," a farmer at the Tikri border told The Quint.
Another farmer, hugging his friend, tells The Quint, "He's my brother!"
A day after the farmers' unions accepted the revised proposal of the Union government with regard to their demands, the Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM) on Thursday held a meeting at the Singhu border, and it was unanimously decided that the farmers would now return home.
"The SKM formally announces the lifting of the morchas at Delhi borders, on national highways, and various other locations in response. The current agitation stands suspended. The battle has been won and the war to ensure farmers' rights, especially to secure MSP as a legal entitlement for all farmers, will continue," said the umbrella body of farmers' unions in a statement.
The farmers, after the SKM's decision, were seen packing up their belongings, as tents and temporary shelters at the border have begun to be dismantled and loaded into trucks for the journey home.
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