My name reveals very little about me. Except perhaps that I was probably born to Hindu parents. Gopinath, meaning 'master of the milkmaids' is one of the other names of Krishna. During Hindu rituals, especially where, as the eldest of the siblings, I am expected to do the honours, I am asked my gotra, which I now understand means clan. I am from the Srivatsa clan, the priest told me after my mother told him.

In conversations, specially with elders, casual questions about surname, gotra and lagna (the astrological sign on the horizon at the time of birth) are like codes that swiftly reveal your position in the Hindu pecking order. The Brahmin, of course, is top of the pack, and the Shudra, the nearly untouchable servant class, sits at the bottom.