Sujatha Gidla was born an untouchable in Andhra Pradesh. She studied physics at the Regional Engineering College, Warangal, and was later a researcher in applied physics at the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras. Her writing has appeared in The Oxford India Anthology of Telugu Dalit Writing. She works as a conductor on the subway in New York. She became the first Indian woman to be employed as a conductor on the New York City Subway – one of the busiest mass transit systems in the world. In an interview, she said, "Because I am a Marxist and Communist, I also have romantic feelings about being a working-class person. So this job attracted me. Secondly, I wanted to do something that men are supposed to be doing."
