I was born in a Dalit family in Ajmer, Rajasthan. And I grew up learning to hide it. My convent school education, a non-Dalit sounding last name, and a skin colour that was ‘dusky but still not dirty’ eased my passing as a non-Dalit. ‘Beta, what caste are you from?’ ‘Aunty, Brahmin.’ A lie I spoke so often and with such conviction, that I not only fooled my friends’ mothers but even myself.
