I was born in the Gond Adivasi community in Wardha, Maharashtra. I am the eldest of my siblings—three sisters and a brother. My parents are farm labourers who work in fields that belong to other people.
“This is Asur Akhra Radio, we will dance… we will play… we will sing…” In the bazaars of Latehar and Gumla districts, some 200 km from Ranchi, Jharkhand, the energetic beating of drums and the collective voices of women draw market goers towards them.
I learnt the verbal construction of grammatically correct English sentences for the first time in Class IV when my friends secretly chuckled at my mispronounced words. Until then, I hadn’t realised that my excessive knowledge of Tamil had done nothing to win them over. The convent school in my small town seemed to like my English; what happened along the way?
