Scum of the Earth : A True Story from the Margins

The story of Avinash's father, Dagadoo, being beaten for asking for leftover puranpoli---a festive delicacy he rarely got to eat---was one that stayed with him forever. While discrimination was a shared generational pain, Dagadoo, a Dalit man and a foot soldier in Dr B.R. Ambedkar's social movement, believed that education, hard work and honesty would allow his son to enter the world those high-rise city lights symbolized. This set the tone for a life shaped by a relentless fight against poverty, caste and greed.

Living in a one-room hut in a Mumbai slum, where open drains ran past crumbling homes and dreams were rationed like rice, Avinash knew early on that he would have to claw his way out to live with dignity.

From working as a factory labourer to being a tally clerk in the docks, he slogged through Mumbai's underbelly before breaking into its gleaming newsrooms. But survival came with its own share of humiliation, rage and breakdowns. Eventually, he rose to white-collar respectability---a salary with commas and a visiting card to access the powers that be. But even there, discrimination lingered. It simply changed form: a smirk, a whisper, a subtle shutting out.

Scum of the Earth traces one man's journey from the margins to the mainstream---and tells the story of Mumbai's underclass, its brutal churn and its fragile hope.

Rakshit Sonawane was born in Mumbai on 13 May 1957. He is a first-generation learner from an erstwhile untouchable family that converted to Buddhism. His father, Dhondiram, worked as a watchman and was a foot soldier in Dr B.R. Ambedkar's social movement, while his mother, Runjabai, worked as a maidservant. The family initially lived in Wadala and then shifted to Ghatkopar. After completing his schooling, Sonawane worked in a factory as a casual labourer for two years. Post this, he joined the Bombay Port Trust (now Mumbai Port Authority) as a tally clerk, recording cargo operations for seven years. Simultaneously, he attended college, securing a bachelor's degree (in 1979) and, later, a postgraduate degree (in 1981) from Bombay University's Department of English. He also studied journalism and law, and became a newspaper reporter in 1985. Since then, he has worked in several English newspapers like Mid-Day, The Indian Express, The Times of India, the Lokmat Times and The Free Press Journal. He has also written articles for various periodicals and contributed to online news portals like the Firstpost and News 9.