Today, Yashica Dutt is a noted writer and journalist. She is making an attempt to understand the problems and difficulties she faced during her childhood.
Yashica belongs to the Dalit community and feels pride in being a Dalit. Sometimes she thinks whether the childhood of rich and prosperous children is prosperous?
Commenting on her past events, she mentions the wish of her mother who wanted to provide a good education despite her poor status. Her husband was an addict drunkard. There was no one in the family to help her.
Yashica was admitted into a boarding school where she worked hard and proved herself to be an intelligent student. Later she joined the most prestigious educational institution St Stephen’s college.
After completing her studies there, she worked as a journalist in Delhi. She then joined the Columbia University (US) where she completed her master’s degree.
At present, she is working for an advertising agency.
Yashica (34) felt discrimination attitude in the US also where African born negroes were looked down upon.
Yashica was in India last month to attend the Jaipur Literary Festival.
She met her guardian in a hotel in New Delhi.
It may be mentioned that the parents of Yashika were very poor.
They were living in Ajmer (Rajasthan). They would always make an attempt to hide their caste. Yashica always used to get top positions in education.
In, India she took the profession of Fashion Journalist, she always had the feeling of hiding her caste. She had an apprehension that if she reveals her caste, whether other people choose to sit with her?
It may be mentioned in their context that in 2006, the incident of the suicide of a Dalit student of the University of Hyderabad occupied most of the news columns of Indian newspapers.
Yashica feels that RohitVemula did not conceal his caste. He openly expressed his caste.
Yashica, in her book, mentioned it and wrote that he represented Dalit students and stood behind them.
This incident impressed Yashica which prompted her to reveal her caste. One day, she announced her real caste on her Facebook account.
The death of Rohith Vemula made her feel that her story was that of helplessness and not that of shame.
When Yashica revealed her caste, she received a tremendous positive response from her companions who expressed their opinions by using the traditional sentence. “You don’t look like a Dalit”
Although, many movies have been produced on Dalits but social media is a powerful medium.
Yashica’s book contains her experiences in arts and music. It is an addition to Dalit Literature.