Vidya was the first ‘full Delhiite’ in her family. She was born in Salem and moved to India’s capital city at the age of five. Her parents had gone to school in small, sleepy towns, ensconced in a tight network of cousins and family friends, surrounded by people just like them. The Student’s parents went to Delhi University and met at Oxford, mingling in a far more diverse and cosmopolitan crowd. While the diversity of Vidya’s peer group, compared to that of her parents, created spaces for new friendships, they also offered spaces for new rivalries. ‘How can she be the same middle class as
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