The road less travelled: Vinay Kumar

By Amit Sengupta

No, this Indica on the Lucknow-Faizabad road doesn’t belong to him, though he drives it with a flair that belongs to those who know their cars. Because these are not the mythical quadrilaterals which Vajpayee has promised to the nation. These are often one-lane, bumpy, pot-holed roads in the arid interiors of the cowbelt. But Vinay Kumar is undeterred. He has seen too many bumpy rides in his young life. The rest poverty has taught him: the intimacy of being a dalit in unchanging Uttar Pradesh.

So what is the fate of a dalit’s son in a feudal society? The journey from the remote dalit tola of Ranipur Pahari in Gonda, to the job of a driver in Lucknow, has been as tough as it gets for those who are pushed to the wall by the caste system. Vinay’s father moved up as a peon plus errand boy plus gardener plus full-time chowkidar in a government official’s house. His son tells his story with stoicism replete with pain. “One night he was protecting sahib’s house whose family was away. Dacoits came, asked him to give the keys; they said no one will touch him. My father said, you can only go inside over my dead body.”

Later, his dead body had no takers. The sahib did not bother to look up his kids. Not one gesture of help was offered. “As if we did not exist. This is how they are, these sahibs,” says Vinay, his voice choking.

But his mother struggled hard, like all mothers. He went to school. “Dalits don’t have land. Their land is grabbed by landlords or money-lenders. It’s an oppressed life, but things are changing. We don’t take it lying down anymore.”

Vinay is not cribbing. He doesn’t carry the baggage of his social condition. He wants to transcend. He wants to live with self-respect, honesty and hard work. He wants to wear clean clothes and shoes. He has no hang-ups. He doesn’t suffer from low self-esteem. He has broken the mental shackles of the caste society. He wants to start his own travel agency, own his own car. He is articulate, clear-headed and carries himself with amazing dignity. “I want a different life. I don’t want to be crushed by my fate or my poverty,” he says, as the Indica hits the road, chasing the twilight in the horizon.