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"That must feel terrible to be designated as an untouchable person," I commented.
She smiled in reply. "And that, my friend, makes you a hypocrite, or you are blind," she said. "The vast majority of humanity lives as untouchables, don't they? Most people become untouchables as the result of their marriages. Others are untouchable in a different way, but they are isolated nevertheless."
"I'm not a hypocrite," I defended myself. "I am married to Sylvia. That doesn't make me untouchable to you. If it would, I would not have been able to be here. Sylvia and I crossed this bridge a long time ago. I'm not an untouchable."
Indira nodded. "But there is also another vast discrimination happening all over the world that makes people untouchable. This one is built on an even lesser differentiation than the one that we have here between the Dalits and the Thevars. This one might yet make you a hypocrite. I am talking about the sexual division and isolation of people, which goes very deep. In India this discrimination is more in the background. Here nobody questions it. It's hidden, even while it is right in the open."
"No, I'm not an hypocrite on this count either," I defended myself. "From the moment on that people see each other primarily as individual human beings, no one is untouchable by the strands of love that our love builds towards one-another like an out-flowing light. Yes, countless people shy away from that love for reasons of their sex and the challenges that come with it. But this shying away doesn't make any person inherently untouchable. Of course if we intent to force the light of love to flow backwards, like a black hole in space that nothing can escape from, then people become truly untouchable. However, that's not a natural phenomenon in the human world. A black hole would be a perfect model for rape. It emits no light and consumes everything around it. But that's not a natural part of our humanity. It's an artificial phenomenon, a sewer, an imperial creation. A black hole in space appears as if it isn't a part of the universe of light. That is why it is called a black hole. It truly is untouchable. But a human being isn't a black hole, even sexually. If we see each other as human beings we can't be untouchable sexually, but envelop each other in our sunshine. It's the saddest thing in the world that human beings can't regard one-another as primarily human beings. That alone makes them untouchable. They shy away from the very humanity that they are a part of."
She was right. It was also sad that this kind of political talk should erupt in such a lovely place as she had chosen for our dinner, over so lovely a meal as was being served. I sensed a faint smell of exotic spices as chunks of meat, vegetables, blended into a creamy sauce, was lavishly spread over a bed of rice. On the other hand, to judge by the way Indira's eyes sparkled when she spoke about the political issues that had affected her so deeply, it seemed important that we should talk about them, especially since I had come from so far away and from the outside of her world and as a diplomat whose job it is by definition, to listen and to try to understand, but not to judge her and her people. With this thought in mind I did my best to keep the political talk going, to allow her to bring into the open what no tourist would ever hear, or any guide book would ever mention, of the dark places and customs that inspire shame, but which need to be talked about nevertheless.
That's when I remembered with shame on my part that I had some secrets to hide too, about America, which likewise had to be told, especially about the birthday present that I had brought her. After the meal was served I presented the present, a present from America. I confided that it wasn't much of a present in the physical sense, but might be world-shaking in the profound sense. I told her that I had run into a problem with selecting something uniquely American to bring to her as a gift. I told her that my problem had been that everything that I had selected, which I thought was uniquely American, was either made in China, India, Taiwan, Korea, Japan, Mexico, or in one of the other countries that America was enslaving.
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