I may have been born in Delhi, but it was a part of the city mostly inhabited by Dalits. Even there, a chasm of caste differences existed between the myriad sub-castes within Dalits. I overcame these hurdles and went on to complete higher education. Till then, I had been largely protected from caste discrimination. Neither did I have any idea about the term, nor about the process through which it works. In school, I had a friend from the Dhobi caste (a Dalit community), whose parents washed and ironed clothes for a living. I observed how she was always hesitant to reveal this fact, and hid her identity among friends. Today, she is married in a Savarna family, but as far as I know, she has not told her in-laws that her parents were clothes washers. Two of my other friends, almost all of whom were Dalits, were from the Chamar caste. I can’t remember having a Savarna friend in school. Almost all the friends were hesitant and uncomfortable about their caste identity.