Play Book Tag discussion

A day in the life of Bakha - a sweeper and latrine cleaner in India in early 20th century
It's a book about the Caste system, and Bakha is absolutely at the lowest.
My blood boiled with his outrage. It was just so unfair - being born into a profession, and even more so - a position in life, and having no way to change it because society is so set in its ways.
And it's horrible. There's a description early on of the low cast people stand around a well, and having to wait and beg to a higher caste person to get water for them because if they touch the water they will defile it.
This dependence on other people, and the corruption of power. The constant humiliation. Not being able to go to school because nobody wants to teach untouchables.
It made me read few articles about current day and what is left of the caste system. It seems like even though it's not legal to discriminate anymore, it still affect people's life.

It's a small book and worth reading

When a book makes us angry-then you know it was worth reading. Sometime ago I read something similar to this and I remember crying, and thinking-"what made fate put me here, instead of there'?

I know how you feel Joanne.

But I also had a battle in me reading this - yes the hindu society outraged me in this book, but they are no worse than so many other people and societies.
Power does corrupt, and in search for power and comfort people invent horrible ideas and realities that make others' life a misery
(not to speak of many other reasons for suffering in this world)

And another thing that I found interesting -
I found another author that wrote about the topic, but he is one of the Dalits (the low caste that we are talking about), unlike Anand, who's Indian but not a Dalit).
His comment about Untouchable was - It was written by an outsider - and the difference between an outsider writing about a topic to a person whose life it is, is the same difference between a nurse love to a mother's love.
(but that's a whole new topic)

Interesting comparison between nurse and mother! I played softball,many years ago, with a group of nurses(one of them is still my best friend) and I found it so strange(at the time, I was young!) how they became such a part of their long-term patients lives