Joothan autobiography of miss universe

A review of a memoir by an ‘untouchable’ starting in the 1950s in rural Uttar Pradesh.

(This review won the top award in the 3 Quarks Daily 2011 Arts & Literature Contest.

Read more about it here.)

    I grew up in the central Indian city of Gwalior until I left home for college. This was the 70s and 80s.

Joothan autobiography of miss universe winners

My father worked as a textile engineer in a company town owned by the Birla Group, where we lived in a middle class residential quarter for the professional staff and their families. Our 3-BR house had a small front lawn and a vegetable patch behind.

Domestic helpers, such as a washerwoman and a dishwashing woman, entered our house via the front door—all except one, who came in via the rear door. This was the latrine cleaning woman, or her husband at times. As in most traditional homes, our squat toilet was near the rear door, across an open courtyard.

She also brought along a couple of scrawny kids, who waited by the vegetable patch while