I was born in Krishna dist and done my schooling in a missionary. Caste was never discussed there. Was not even aware of the concept. Then transferred to a residential school in gudivada for last two years of schooling. That was the first time I got to know that NBK has ardent fans as my friends from previous school were all chiru fans. A few months later I got to know the caste angle of it. When discussed with my parents I got to know that I am from lower caste. For some reason I started lying about which caste I belong to even though no one has told me to lie. It just came out of nowhere.
In inter in Hyderabad, I am not sure how my JL got to know, but they started remarking that I am lucky and need not put in the hard work that my UC friends had to. I put in the hard work nevertheless and cracked JEE in reservation quota. My not so close friends have openly told me that the marks I've got would've had them barely qualified. Started questioning my capabilities and worthiness for attending an IIT.
In IIT I was lucky to have been friends with some of the brightest minds of the country. There every one knows everyone's ranks which revealed whether someone is UC or reservation category. Caste was never openly discussed, but I always felt out of place interacting with UC top rank people. So started hanging out with reservation category people to feel belonged and have something in common.
After UG, done MBA in a new IIM in North where there are only handful of Telugu people in institute and caste was never discussed. And that was truly where I felt I was accepted and still friends with those Telugu and non Telugu guys.
Got job in Mumbai, no caste discussion.
Shifted to Vijayawada, where everything is about caste. I lied about my caste and religion to my clients and staff. I don't have any religion paraphernalia in my vehicle nor on me. Am in core sales and most of my clients are comfortable with me only because of my lies. I think my staff have a clue of what I am regarding my religion but never about caste. I have people making fun of my caste and reservations not knowing that I belong to the same.
This is the first time I shared or discussed this openly. That too because of anonymity.