More on the Slumdog

This morning, NPR had a feature on the release of Slumdog Millionaire in India and they traced the various reactions stirred among the Indian populace. Many people seem to be affronted by the depiction of poverty, squalor and crime in the film. There is a grouse that most Western films always portray Indian in this typical way. At the same time, NPR interviewed a slum dweller who had been living in Dharavi all his life and he was of the opinion that people deserve to see the truth behind Dharavi. That’s how people live, period.

I have been to Dharavi although the part I visited was not as bad as the rest of it is. But I know enough about Dharavi to say that the film has not portrayed anything that is untrue or a fabrication. Yes, there are mounds of filth around the little hovels, sanitation is really bad (if it exists), water is contaminated and the living conditions are abysmal. Yet, as one of the residents claimed, there is a thriving leather industry and a textile industry that operates out of Dharavi. People here may be poor but they’re not miserable. People may lack good homes and clean running water but that has not prevented anyone from making a life of what they have. Bombay is such a city – she grants you an inch of space to live on, and some of the brightest people take it and run with it. They make a home, bring in a family, raise generations – all in that one inch of space. Trust me, I have seen it happen…

Above all, if you have seen Slumdog Millionaire, you cannot miss the sheer lightness and joyful moments scattered through the film. Yes, it portrays distressing issues as poverty, prostitution, communal disharmony, crime, class conflict and violence. But yet, I feel that the overarching theme in the film is faith, joy and innocence. Slumdog is an ode to innocence, the unbeatable spirit of Jamal Malik and his zest for life and love.

This morning, as I drove into the office parking lot, a car came up on the wrong side and I felt this momentary anger – why was she driving up the wrong way? Then I thought – hey, where did this irritation come up from? I have spent 25 years in Bombay, a place where nearly everyone drives up the wrong way! A city where you sweat, grin, make yourself as compact as you can and crowd into train compartments that literally burst at the seams with commuters, where a 3-seater seats 5 people with briefcases and bags, where a 2-wheeler transports an entire family with little ones – and I complain about space!

Living in the US, I have gotten so used to spotlessness, abundant space and time – that an errant driver makes me see red, a dirty toilet brings up the bile and someone crowding into my space makes me insecure! But hey, I am a die-hard Bombayite – put me in Bombay and I’ll be back to my squeezing, adjusting, push-pull self…:)