Before you speak, before you act, before you achieve anything, a question has already been asked about you. It is not asked aloud, not always. But it is there, in the pause before your name is repeated, in the slight tilt of a head, in the way a landlord's eyes flicker when you say where you are from. In India, this question is not "Who are you?" It is "Aage?" – What's next? What follows your name?

That which follows your name is caste. And the system that ensures that what follows your name determines your fate is casteism.