“Ah yes, that’s right. Him—Sathu, the one you call Janardhanan. Then he made something of himself. He studied to be a lawyer. He used to say, ‘I finished my degree in a hurry and rushed back here so that I could protest and get arrested. But before I could do all that, this Gandhi had already got us our independence! He cheated me out of it.’ So he hung out a sign and started a private practice as a lawyer. But no clients. He did his utmost to get some people to hire him, but nothing worked. Whenever some hapless fellow did end up hiring him as his lawyer, well, that was the end of him. If he represented the plaintiff, the defendant was sure to win. So he decided to completely change his line of work. Now he walks around with his arms around the shoulders of the manual scavengers. You should hear him talk to our Madasami. ‘Comrade’ this, ‘Comrade’ that! Like they were born from the same womb and had been close forever! Do you see what I am getting at?”

“You are suggesting he might be behind this?”

“I suspect it, yes. These fellows were quietly going about their work. But now he has changed them. They see things differently. They want benefits. They want allowances. They are demanding we set up a general store. They are asking for maternity leave. And their women? They want tassels for their broomsticks! Apparently, that will make them stylish. ‘You give us just a sari and a uniform. Why not a bodice? The kind we tie at the back . . .’ This is the scavenger women talking!”

“Stop it! Stop it! You’ve got to stop!” bellowed the chairman, waving his hand and breathless with laughter. “I get all that. But what do we do now?”

“We need to make a complaint.”

“With the police?”

“Yes.”

“You seem to know everything that is going on, and you still say we need to file a complaint with the police! Don’t you know the police are just waiting for a chance to get one up on the municipality?!”

“I am aware of that. But I still think we need to file a police complaint.”

“What the hell for?”

“What are you talking about, Chairman? How do you plan to explain this whole fiasco when they bring this up at the next council meeting?”

“Oh! So for the council . . .”

“Yes! Don’t we need something to show them? We can’t go tell them, ‘The police are looking down at us, so we didn’t file a complaint,’ can we? In practice, we may deviate from official process, but the paperwork has to be in order.”

“You are right, you are right,” said the chairman.

“So let’s file a complaint. Let the official things happen as they should.”