Leaving aside our history, bigotry is prevalent even today. From the day we are born, we experience racial discrimination. In the country I live in, being a female is tough because you have to be constantly looked down upon. In all spheres of life women are not yet treated equally in our society. I am lucky enough to be born in a family where everybody is a believer in equality. However it is not the same with everyone. I have personally witnessed discrimination on the basis of gender. Lila was a classmate at school. She was a bright, cheery and a good student, always the topper. She came to our school as part of the EWS program of the government. Even though she was poor, most of us treated her like one of us, never letting her feel that she was not one of us. With a chirpy smile she gradually won our hearts and was soon part of my gang of friends. Lila was a constant source of fascination for us since we had never on a personal basis had heard the difficulties of the poor. We were enchanted by her stories of her home, her brother, mother and father. We were awed by her bravery of living in a place with no air conditioners. We were surprised when she told us how she walked down to school every day from her home which was 10 miles away. All this, and her qualities of kindness and being soft spoken, attracted us towards her. Even though some of the girls in my class teased her about being from a poor background she always remained unperturbed and went about her chores with a cheery smile. As it so happened Lila suddenly stopped coming to school. At first we thought she was just ill but the week turned into a month and a month into two. We were by then missing her presence immensely. Since we had never been to her house before, we got her address from the reception and then decided to go see her. On a bright Saturday morning, all of us trooped into Lila’s basti. After that it was just a matter of minutes when we found her house. Inside