It is an incident of my childhood. I was around 11 or 12 years old and lived in a small town called Khadamangalam in Tamil nadu. A small river flowed through it bisecting the town into two a areas. The greater part was the main town, and the other smaller part was the Dalit settlement.
I don't know why but nobody from the mainland crossed to the settlement. Only the dalits were allowed to travel across the river for work, study or travel. Now there was only one school in the town and every child attended the same. Here is where I met and befriended the dalit boy Damu.
An one day out of my curiosity I accompanied him back to his home after school to see the settlement. It was better than the typical slum we see in movies- clean, green and organized. The people were very friendly and my visit like created a wave of excitement through the settlement. Many came and shook hands, elders blessed me, and Damu's parents were ecstatic.
They offered me fresh tender coconut plucked from the tree on the spot for me to drink and treated me like a king. I was so happy when I returned home. But my joy survived only till then. Somehow word had spread of my visit and what waited for me was the ire and admonition of the family. I was warned on my freedom to never interact with Damu ever again, and not to even look towards the settlement again.
I was told the next day that Damu and the entire settlement too had been severely warned. From that we both friends never spoke to each other again.
It's been decades since, but I still remember it like yesterday. But even now I don't understand what was our crime? Why are they so untouchable? And who started this concept at all?
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