During my second visit to Jyotiraditya Scindia’s rural constituency of Guna, I was on my own. Travelling by local bus, staying in farmer’s houses and what not! I was not clear as to what the plan was except that I thought I will be spending some time in the rural area will get me more acclimatized to India. I had been to villages before with Verma Ji and I did not except much challenges.

The Brahmin Village of Sirsoudh in Shivpuri (MP) was the first village I had been too. One thing that had struck me was how neat Indian villages are! The roads inside the village were kaccha but still they were swept clean. Perhaps there was not enough to litter the streets with.

In my second visit, I was not expecting anything new but while I was talking to smart – BBC watching Brahmins some more people asked me to visit their Mohalla. There was something about these people that my twice-born soul disliked instinctively. These people were Harijans. They were noticeably darker, leaner and poorer. As I went to their part of the village the clean streets gave way to pot holes filled with stagnated water.

The Children were filthy and looked like they never bathe. The well near which I was standing and talking to people was equally dirty. I was trying to empathize with the villagers on lack of development and neglect. A young leader was looking at me suspiciously. He said, will you have a glass of water. There was a glass of water infront of me and people eager to know if I am one of them? I kept staring at the glass and the well from which its contents would have been sourced.

And then I looked at the glass once more and the it all started to make sense. It was like the moment when you identify the critical piece in a jigsaw puzzle. The Harijan (Children of the God) have been told since ages that they are unclean; unclean not in grooming but by birth. This notion has been reinforced so many times that external cleanliness stops making a difference. I drank the glass of water and I could see the glimmer of satisfaction in the people, which said there is one less caste-ist now.

In Swades, Mohan Bhargava was re-converted from being an NRI after non-Bisleri water in the local train. The same thing happened to me. I was Indianized for life at that moment.