Anu and Sudha

Anu and Sudha were both born on the same day. Anu's mother and father were construction labourers and Sudha's father was a businessman and her mother a designer.

Anu’s mother worked by carrying head loads of bricks until she went into labour. She then went behind the tool shed on the construction site and delivered her baby alone. She fed her child and then wrapped her in an old sari, made a cradle with a gunny sack, put little Anu in it and hung it from a tree. She hurried back to work as she was afraid she would lose her job. She hoped that Anu would sleep until evening.

Sudha was born in one of the best nursing homes in the city. She was thoroughly checked by doctors, she was bathed and dressed in clean soft clothes and placed in a crib next to her mother. Her mother fed her whenever she was hungry, hugged and kissed her and sang her to sleep. Her family and friends celebrated her arrival.

Anu and Sudha had very different childhoods. Anu learnt to look after herself at a very early age. She knew what hunger and deprivation were. She discovered how to pick food from the dustbin, how to keep warm during the winter, to find shelter in the monsoon and how to play with a piece of string, stones and twigs. Anu could not go to school as her parents were migrant workers who kept moving from city to city in search of work.

Anu loved to dance. Whenever she heard music she would improvise. She was very beautiful and her movements were graceful and evocative. Her dream was to dance on a stage some day. Anu could have become a great dancer but she had to begin work at the age of 12. She had to earn a living with her mother and father, building houses for the rich. Houses, she would never live in.

Sudha went to a very good play school where she learnt how to read, write and count. She went on excursions to the planetarium, museum and national parks. She later went to a very good school. She loved painting and started getting private lessons from a famous artist. She later joined a design school and became a well known painter.

- From NCERT Textbook titled Indian Economic Development, for Standard XI, Chapter 4.

I guess the story is somewhat incomplete. Here is the part that is missing:

Sudha had a classmate called Radha. Radha's father was a Class I Government officer and she would often come to school on a Government vehicle (which had a beacon). When Sudha and Radha were in standard XII, they wrote the entrance test for the state engineering college. Being privileged Sudha applied for the general category. Radha, who belongs to the Yadav community, applied through the OBC quota. Sudha did not make it to the college. Radha secured a free seat and went on to become a software professional. She made her family mighty proud.