"Jaati hai ki jaati nahi,” goes the old adage on caste. Translation: Such is the nature of caste, that it never leaves you. Ask 24-year-old Prajakta Kedare, who was born and brought up in the Maximum City that prides itself for being progressive. “When I knocked on the doors of a college for admission, the answer was curt, ‘We prefer not to admit students from Siddharth Colony [a Dalit settlement in Chembur],” she recalls. A giant leap from her one-room home, Kedare is now eyeing a move to the University for the Creative Arts in Canterbury in 2027, where an invitation to the MA Visual Communication batch awaits her.

Artworks featuring Jyotirao Phule