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Man Bites ‘Slumdog’

Don't let the movie mislead you: there are no fairy-tale endings for most of India's street kids. I was one of them myself.

By Sudip Mazumdar | NEWSWEEK
Published Feb 21, 2009
From the magazine issue dated Mar 2, 2009

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  • Posted By: HypatiaRemembered @ 03/20/2009 3:08:49 PM

    I just want to say this was PERFECT! Thanks for this from a slum escapee...

  • Posted By: Kidapoor @ 03/09/2009 10:43:28 AM

    A truly evocative and truthfull summary of the terrible conditions in a massively overpopulated country.Having travelled India extensively it is without doubt an amazing place to be.The poverty however is also a sad reflection on all across our globe.We see poverty in many continents and many many charities send millions to help,however the root cause needs addressing to solve poverty.This root cause in my opinion is to encourage us to embrace our fellow humans regardless of race ,colour or creed,regardless of class,status or wealth and share the resources our planet has to offer to all who need it.

  • Posted By: rhubarb @ 03/06/2009 6:24:32 PM

    This is telling it exactly how it is. Is there hope. Well certainly thinking money drifts downwards is nonsense. Money drifts only upwards contrary to logic. So the answer is the poor must make their voice heard and that is the hard part. Recently I found some pictures of London in Victorian times and they were of dire poverty. Remember Dickens but something changed. India is incredibly complacent. Endlessly you hear well what can I do? Well teach someone to read for a start.I am teaching a woman to read at the moment and her husband does not like it but hey I might end up teaching him to read to. As you can see from this article little acts of kindness that don't cost often make a huge difference. But I will say it again Indians need to stop being so complacient.

  • Posted By: rhubarb @ 03/06/2009 6:16:41 PM

    A very good article. It shows it exactly as it really is and how many just turn a blind eye. there is hope. I recently found some photos of London in Victorian times and the poverty was gut renching and it was so cold. Bare feet i the snow. I don't know how you change it but I think the nonsense that money drifts down is rubbish. It just drifts upwards! So the poor must unite and make their voice heard because alac the rich will never help them and once out few wish to return.

  • Posted By: Zeigy @ 02/22/2009 2:47:35 AM

    The problem I have with slums is why would parents continue to make children if they can't support them and raise them under such appalling conditions? Government needs to step in and institute a form of population control in these slums because the slum dwellers apparently can't do this for themselves.

    • Posted By: beachmike @ 02/22/2009 3:20:14 AM

      You don't seem to understand, Zeigy. People in these slums are living hand-to-mouth, just trying to survive one more day. How do you expect them to afford any kind of birth control? Do you actually expect them to give-up having sex?

      • Posted By: Zeigy @ 02/27/2009 8:18:56 PM

        You telling me these women would just go making children non stop simply as a byproduct because the can't keep it under their skirt. You'd think the additional burden of having the children and further deepening their poverty ould be reason enough to avoid having children. They can make there own contraceptive, why don't they use some nylon or plastic bag, it's the slums afterall.

        • Posted By: y3yram @ 03/01/2009 8:12:55 PM

          You're forgetting that more kids=more possibilities for jobs=more money for the family. And well, in these "appalling conditions" a couple kids would die, so having some for backup would be the way to go.

        • Posted By: y3yram @ 03/01/2009 8:12:33 PM

          You're forgetting that more kids=more possibilities for jobs=more money for the family. And well, in these "appalling conditions" a couple kids would die, so having some for backup would be the way to go.

    • Posted By: beachmike @ 02/22/2009 3:18:47 AM

      You don't seem to understand, Zeigy. People in these slums are living hand-to-mouth, just trying to survive one more day. How do you expect them to afford any kind of birth control? Do you actually expect them to give-up having sex?

    • Posted By: beachmike @ 02/22/2009 3:18:00 AM

      You don't seem to understand, Zeigy. People in these slums are living hand-to-mouth, just trying to survive one more day. How do you expect them to afford any kind of birth control? Do you actually expect them to give-up having sex?

  • Posted By: dasarus @ 02/28/2009 9:45:29 AM

    ...Because, he himself is a Bangladeshi refugee, a burden on India. He simply dislike India. He is a liar. Whole story is to defame India. Shame on him.

    • Posted By: wpsjr @ 03/01/2009 6:55:23 AM

      Sorry but i can't agree with you, I just don't see the part where he states/implies that he dislikes India. I believe the message that he wants to impart is that not all people living in the slums end up having the same fortune as the guy in the movie(or the same as the writer for that matter). People are suffering around the world, they do suffer in part because we allow it to.

  • Posted By: robin hood @ 02/28/2009 1:38:13 PM

    Hi Sundip Thank you for sharing your story .I have not seen the movieso can not coment on it . But but what is far more inportant . It has hight Light a need a real deep pain and sorrow that is a wound in our World which needs healing. I have a friend who came with tears in his eyes pain in his heart and arms to hug to and says i want to love
    you . He is the GOD--JESUS . I pray that the film may provoke HEART not the HYPE WORLD GET YOUR ACT TOGEATHER robin foster

  • Posted By: dasarus @ 02/28/2009 9:39:54 AM

    ...Because, he himself is a Bangladeshi refugee, a burden on India. He simply dislike India. He is a liar. Whole story is to defame India. Shame on him.

  • Posted By: nadeemalam @ 02/27/2009 11:34:02 PM

    Can you believe that NEWSWEEK has employees with a criminal background? Does Mr Sundip wants us to believe that with no formal education and only with the help of a stolen dictionary, he can reach upto NEWSWEEK or does Mr Sundip wants us to believe that a common Hindu like himself is leading the same life in India as 95% of the Muslims are living? What a shame... the article is a mere propaganda meant to discredit the movie.

  • Posted By: FATJOEY @ 02/25/2009 10:03:45 AM

    just goes to show you most people in slums are lazy and prefer to be there,yes it takes effort to get out but its far from impossible! maybe the bleeding heart liberals who blame society instead of the person themselves for living like pigs could learn something from this?!

    • Posted By: perrin @ 02/27/2009 8:33:43 PM

      fat joey, you are truly a moron. I have never used that word about anyone on the internet, consider yourself, well, just consider yourself.........................................................................................................................................?

    • Posted By: ladoll @ 02/25/2009 4:13:22 PM

      Idiot.

  • Posted By: amit_abc123 @ 02/27/2009 6:49:04 PM

    Friends: CHECK THIS OUT - Slumdog boy beaten up by Dad!!! .

    http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/article2279435.ece

  • Posted By: Getitout @ 02/27/2009 5:34:03 PM

    They didn't had to go to India to make a movie about slums. By the way them two millionairs are they still in the slums of Idia, or in beverly hills?.

  • Posted By: lillilolli @ 02/26/2009 9:49:34 PM

    Thank you for a real perspective on "Slumdog". Everyone is talking about how good this movie is. "It's a love story, it's this, it's that---you have to see it". Well, I found this movie bleak and disturbing. All I could think about during the whole movie was the real people who live in the slums (in Mumbai and all over the world), the people who do not or never will get out. I was bothered that the young girl chose to stay with Jamals brother until I realized it was pure survival on her part; he was cunning enough to find food and shelter...only Hollywood can afford to "Live on Love".

  • Posted By: oolonggirl @ 02/25/2009 2:41:39 PM

    Let's not forget how India's still ingrained, though swept under the rug, Caste system keeps millions of people in perpetual poverty. Why would someone even bother trying to emerge from the slums if their religion and the society around them asserts that such is their lot until the next life? Lowest on the food chain means one won't be educated or expected to achieve more than what they've been dealt. It's no wonder India has not quite reached its potential since more than half of its population is systematically pushed into the dirt.

    • Posted By: Lahaina @ 02/26/2009 7:42:02 PM

      The caste sstem is being dealth with huge affirmative action programs. It is easier toget into good schools and ladn jobs if one is form the so called..scheduled/lowere caste groups. Perhaps 45 percent of admisisons and job positions are kept for the 'backward' class even if htere are far more qualified people.
      Chian had the strict one child policy and took horrible draconian actions to abhort hte unborn fetuses. and it controlled it population growth by inhumane means....only bec. iit is NOT a democracy.

  • Posted By: Bahaar Rizvi @ 02/24/2009 1:49:41 AM

    I am from a small town in UP (Jhansi), who grew up in a middle class family. My mother used to travel 60 km per day, to teach English in one of the Central Schools, be it a hot day or cold cold winter, just to bring home enough pay to take care of 4 children and their exhorbitant school fees. My father was a teacher in a UP State school which always had issues with salaries as the UP State treasury was almost empty and never had enough to pay its employees. I am no slumdog, but I have known people like these, who have grown out of poverty to achieve something in their lives. I agree that many resort to criminal ways and are never able to break the shackles of hunger and poverty and disgust towards their lives, but some do break out of it. My maid had 8 children and yes, some became local goons, but some did complete their education and are today working in government jobs. Today, I live in Bangalore and earn a respectable income working for a respectable firm, but every now and then, the contrast between the wealth of the world playing in my backyard and the extreme poverty playing on the streets is very very obvious. It was wonderful reading your column. Yes it was a wonderful movie which dealt with one such slumdog who made his way out of the gruesome life. But there are many many more out there. I agree that the slums only exist as they are allowed to and this sure does has to change.

    • Posted By: Lahaina @ 02/26/2009 7:33:32 PM

      Too many kids are being bornn to people who do not have teh means to support them.

  • Posted By: skeptikos @ 02/26/2009 5:33:36 PM

    Your life makes my belief in fate much more stronger.. It was fate which made your father a refugee in his own country India. It was fate which made Mr.Sengupta to offer you your first job and Mr.ganguly to notice you and take you to Delhi. But for fate whatever talent you may have you would not have come up.

  • Posted By: skeptikos @ 02/26/2009 5:26:37 PM

    Everything depends on fate. If it played a dirty one on your father and made him a refugee here , at least it favoured you later. But for your good luck whatever merrit you may have you could not have got your first job with Mr.Sengupta and later get noticed by Mr.Ganguly. Whatever talent one may have without luck one cannot come up in life. It is destiny.

  • Posted By: akchakraborty@newsweek @ 02/26/2009 10:43:04 AM

    Today, on 26/02/2009,I HAVE come to know the comment and advice of Sudip Mazumder and also the different comments forrowarded by many international homosepians on the impact of the movie SLUMDOG.To comment is a easy thing.But we should remind ourselves of the zeal,zest,diligence,research and courage of the Producer,DIrector and their troop to make such film which has acclaimed highest degree.Theatrically and cinematically the movie is no doubt excellent and superb.We can not ignore it.IT may be ended in fairy-tale-style or melodramatic.But it could at least brings in hope in the minds of slumdogs of everywhere.If there were no HOPE and IMAGINATION in children lives we wont get poet,politician,technocrats,academicians,and ...so on.Fairy tale is also necessary in time of utter agony,depression,disgace caused by poverty to kick start the subdued and traumatized mind of the poors. Yes it is true that maximum number of LUCKY DOGS will watch the movie with snacks and coffee utterring '"WAH! WAH !"many times without put forrowarding any pence to slumdwellers, but among such ten people at least one will moved by the idea to the betterment of the poverty stricken children of slums.And thats the imbuing quality of the movie.Revolution , here is not necessary;rather if we think of social awareness' evolution to uplift poverty ,we will be in the right step.As pen is mightier than gun, so social awareness through performing art is more effective than chaos,noise and so called revolutions.

  • Posted By: amit_abc123 @ 02/26/2009 10:03:03 AM

    Part-V

    Not only that, these kids need to get a part of the money the film rakes in, it is not UNREALISTIC TO EXPECT the film makers to contribute to some kind of a trust to uplift the other slum dwellers even if they have played no part in the movie.

    I say this b'coz the movie is NOT just about the two kids, but it is a DEPICTION of the deplorable conditions of everyone living there, which is the driving force for the Osacr awards and the big bucks!!!

  • Posted By: amit_abc123 @ 02/26/2009 10:01:41 AM

    Part-IV

    The following comment I wrote in response to some readers suggesting that the Govt need to make some sincere efforts to provide decent housing for these people.

    I agree that may be a good idea. But, once again, the sheer numbers scare any prospective experiments. For ex: the population density in Bombay slums is 400,000 in a area of about 0.4 square miles (1 Sq.km.)!!!!

    Also even when the govt. provides good/hygenic free accomodation on the periphery of the city (as there is not much land available within) nobody wants to move, rather they prefer to stay in the slums!

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