Growing Up Untouchable in India: A Dalit Autobiography.

Moon, Vasant. Growing Up Untouchable in India: A Dalit Autobiography. Gail Omvedt (Trans from Marathi). New Dehi: Vistaar Pubications, 2001.

Contents:
Introduction. 1. The neighborhood. 2. Fearless. 3. Callousness and clouds. 4. Heat and rain. 5. Dev master’s curse fails. 6. Religious hymns. 7. Shooting star. 8. Chickpeas and parched rice. 9. The unconquered. 10. Parade of lions and tigers. 11. Foreshadowing. 12. Holy victory. 13. Robust and rollicking. 14. Sports and study. 15. Politics and pigeons. 16. Climax. 17. Wrath. 18. Cultural transformation. 19. An unspoiled picture. 20. The welfare of the world. 21. For what? For books. 22. I begin to write. 23. The end of Omar Khayyam. 24. Rising moon. 25. The vows of religion. 26. Falling star. 27. Tying the knot. 28. The spinning top. 29. Summing up. Chronology. Glossary. Biographical notes. Bibliography. Index.

Moon has dedicated this autobiography to his mother Purnabai whose "cracks in her feet disappeared only with death." The beginning describes the Basti or the slum in which Moon was born. It is not a sentimental description of poverty or struggle alone. It is about the crammed way in which life places the Mahars in the Basti and the strange way in which peace is still got out of these inhuman circumstances. The tar road becomes the space of socialising and sometimes even star gazing for the growing up boy.

The text is also about growing up male in a Dalit basti. The models in front of him are the wrestlers who fight amongst themselves and then join hands at a later stage, the thief Nagya who was known all over Maharashtra and who bequeths his skills to his son, men who tease the beautiful Champa, wife of an old man etc.