Jaihind made the Cobbler a Novelist

The early 1980s in a village called Dalmapur is seemingly perfect. But decades since the country attained its independence, vestiges of untouchability and caste-based discrimination still remain.

Twelve-year-old Aryali, born in a family of cobblers, is not spared from the prejudices. As an illiterate boy belonging to a lower caste, his name is constantly distorted. He is forced to respectfully address boys of the same age as ‘babu’, the name he secretly wishes for himself.

Amid poverty and st...