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The Indian poor are accessible, conversational, often congenial and friendly, and generally unthreatening. No one can travel among the American poor the way I could travel among the Indian poor, asking intrusive questions. Whatโs your name? How long have you lived here? Where do you work? How much money do you make?โthe usual visitorโs questions. I got answers, and even hospitality. In the same sort of area in the United Statesโthe decaying sections of Jackson, Mississippi, the Roxbury neighborhood of Boston, the Anacostia district in Washington, D.C., and many other placesโI would be thr…