Essay: Sacred Thread

This essay by Bhanu Vedantam is an exploration of caste and generational trauma, and how it shapes families.

Today, the movers came. They left behind a husk of a home, skeletal concrete that now only holds the memory of a soul. I ran my fingers along the coarse white walls, bidding farewell to every inanimate thing that bore witness to my coming of age. 

My parents watched in silence. They didn’t know what to say. They had decided to sell the old, decrepit apartment and move to our new big place in the city.

I was back in V-town, and the last time I talked to my father had been on a phone call about a month ago, on which he launched into one of his countlessly rehashed tirades about how I should get an MBA degree and settle down in the new House in the City with a nice Brahmin girl.