The authorities’ handling of the high-profile case – Aarushi’s father, Rajesh Talwar, a dentist, is currently the police’s latest suspect – resulted in angry demonstrations by Nepali labourers, outraged that one of their countrymen had been blamed unfairly for such a horrible crime. But the case has focused fresh attention on the uneasy relationship between India’s middle classes and the ubiquitous servants who wash, cook, shop, drive, garden and clean for them. It has highlighted too, the deep anxiety of many Indians who live in perpetual fear that their servants will rob them, poison them or worse. A constant source of conversation among Indians who employ domestic staff, such fear has now even found its way into a popular new Indian novel that tells the story of a bitter and disenchanted chauffeur in Delhi who slits his employer’s throat.

From the Independent.

[P.S. A friend tells me that the book mentioned at the end of that paragraph is Aravind Adiga’s The White Tiger. Apropos of masters and servants, here’s a line from the book: “In the old days there were 1,000 castes … in India. These days, there are just two castes: Men with Big Bellies, and Men with Small Bellies.” Here’s more on Adiga’s novel. Thanks, Sree.]