Summary

The outcasts live in a colony of mud-walled houses that cluster together in two rows under the shadow of the town. They are surrounded by dirt and filth from the public latrines and dead animal skins and carcasses. Bakha, an 18-year-old man, works under his father, Lakha. Lakha is a sweeper in the town and in charge of the three latrines on the far side of the colony by the brook.

Bakha’s sister sleeps on a cot on the other side of his room and his father and other brother share a threadbare quilt on a broken bed. Bakha dreams of wearing opulent clothes and uniforms and often passes through the secondhand shop in the town. He knows he has no money to buy anything which breaks his heart. He sleeps in the cold without a blanket and thinks about being...