Synopsis
Guthlee and Ladoo are good friends living in a small rural village in India. Since their fathers are street sweepers, the boys are also in the lowest caste, the untouchables. Though they are the right age, they are not allowed to study at school, so they just hang around the schoolyard. Sometimes Guthlee tries to answer teacher’s questions from outside the classroom window. On the day the Indian constitution came into effect, a ceremony was held in the playground of the school. “It gives us equal rights. All children have the right to receive an education,” the chairman praises the constitution. “Then, if it gives permission to all, why do you stop me?” Guthlee cries out. Will his voice be heard? While Guthlee’s father has the courage to ask the principal to allow his son into the school, Ladoo’s father decides to take his son to work with him. The two boys get to face very different challenges. (Creta D. KIM)