If Sudha Muttal’s first stage was her school, her most-performed act was skipping classes. Parched in a caste-based discriminatory atmosphere, she was all too familiar with last benches, blurry blackboards, and the big thorny neglect.

So, off the truant went to create her oasis in the fields, by playing dough with mud, unearthing worms, and sailing paper-boats when rains obliged.

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