Slumdog millionaire: the story of two orphans growing up in Bombay. We have seen them, Salim and Jamaal, and they are everywhere. Those urchins who beg near the traffic signals, those kids hawking cheap fruits on trains, those hungry faces who try to steal a meal at weddings, those tired eyes picking up rags from mountains of waste.
It is a story that has one of the most haunting and evocative protagonists, a modern day everyman. The greatness of the story lies in the fact that most of us can not even begin to relate to it. Yes, such poverty and inhumanness have lived right beside us all along. As we fumbled with books, worried about exams, gave interviews and wondered about investments, Salim and Jamaal receded into the stereotypes. The poor kids who turned to crime. We will never understand the horror that visits them in multitude of forms, hunger, alienation, exploitation. As we withdraw into our plush offices and gated communities, such tales of humanity will pass us by, unnoticed and unheard of.
2 comments:
What do you propose to do?
Your sentiment is extracted and well put in your post...
@kranti kumar: realizing a problem leads way to a solution. let us acknowledge his realization first as you should have and did,i guess.
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