Iron Magician
The last house we passed belonged to the blacksmith. A
member of the untouchable class, he is considered
unclean and at the bottom of the Hindu social ladder.
Interestingly, his son had left the village and gone to
work as an auto repairman, returning to the village
wealthy with money. I wonder how much of a conflict
this was to the traditional belief system that
untouchables remain impoverished and outcasts.
I felt an affinity for this old man. He was a magician.
His knowledge of metalworking was a trade passed
down for generations. Strange that he was considered
untouchable when in the West, the trades became the
replacement for the ruling class and education became
available to a wider audience.
