MYSORE -- On the outskirts of historic Mysore -- city seat of maharajas until Indian independence in 1947 -- is a settlement called Kuduremala. A community of just 800 people, its name is testament to the former rulers of Mysore -- which occupies about a third of present-day Karnataka State -- who took their horses (kudure) there to drink from its open water tanks (mala)
Things are very different today: Kuduremala is the slum home of people from the bottom of India's caste system.
That, though, hasn't stopped one enterprising resident, 36-year-old Pappamma, who three months ago opened a store there. From 6 a.m. to 9 p.m., her little shop sells candies, snacks and groceries, as well as items such as bindis, the colored dots many Indian women put on their foreheads.