My friend Amitava Kumar points me to this poignant picture by Ritesh Uttamchandani:
This is a picture of Sunil and Arvind Parmar, who own a tea stall in Gujarat. The boy under the table is their Dalit servant, Mangal.
I’d bet that if Mangal wasn’t under the table, the Parmars would have their feet on the ground, not on their seats, where they seem rather uncomfortable. Is that out of concern or disgust, you think?
I’d also bet that there are hazaar people out there who wouldn’t see anything odd in that boy sitting under the table. Such it goes.