For years the Marathi poet Namdeo Dhasal (1949–2014), founder-member of the Dalit Panther, wrote a poem for his hero Babasaheb Ambedkar on 14 April and 6 December, his birth and death anniversaries. Inspired by Dhasal's example, S Anand, publisher of Navayana, who recently annotated Ambedkar’s classic Annihilation of Caste, reflects on his relationship with Ambedkar and Ambedkar’s with the world on the occasion of his 124th birth anniversary.