By Martin Macwan* The year was 1976 and the month was May. I had appeared for matriculation exam, 11th standard, the last year of the old SSC before the State of Gujarat switched to a new system, 10 + 2, from St. Mary’s High School, Nadiad. I was then not aware of the complexities of the caste system. I had not heard or read much about Dr. B.R. Ambedkar or the works of Savitri and Jyotiba Phule, since it was not part of the curriculum or the Christian missionary educator’s zeal to inform students about the excluded history of India. As a child of 8, I had worked along with my grandmother in the farms of the grandmother of Ashwin Patel, my friend, located in Chhintiyawad, Nadiad. Studying in class 3, Ashwin and I were great friends and competitors; we would compete in getting best scores in mathematics, though I was always the topper. At the farm, however, while I worked, Ashwin would sit on the pile of dry hey of bajra, watching me work, unable to play as we did in the school. I was se