Scum of the Earth

Living in a one-room hut in a Mumbai slum, where open drains ran past crumbling homes and dreams were rationed like rice, Avinash knew early on that he would have to claw his way out to live with dignity. The story of Avinash's father, Dagadoo, being beaten for asking for leftover puranpoli---a festive delicacy he rarely got to eat---was one that stayed with him forever. While discrimination was a shared generational pain, Dagadoo, a Dalit man and a foot soldier in Dr B.R. Ambedkar's social movement, believed that education, hard work and honesty would allow his son to enter the world those high-rise city lights symbolized. This set the tone for a life shaped by a relentless fight against poverty, caste and greed.

Pages: 300, Paperback, HarperCollins Publishers India