I grew up in a world where generalisations, and stereotypes, were common. People around me spoke about entire communities in broad brush strokes in a remarkably derogatory manner. People of a particular region were considered untrustworthy, another entire community was hospitable but not particularly intelligent, one particular group of people had no culture whatsoever, members of a particular religious minority were inherently unclean, those who worked in a particular institution were deemed incapable of understanding nuance or logic. The list was long. It did not quite bother me when I was young and knew little, and also because it was presented by those around me with an underlying sense of superiority. Since I was from the privileged class - Punjabi, Sunni and male - things were pretty good from my vantage point of view. Everyone else in the country had a lot of catching up to do.

Overtime, however, I recognised how deeply disturbing it was to see people........

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