So much has been said, over newsprint, over blog, over broadcast and this night it entered my bedroom. Hey wait 'My bedroom' it should be 'Our bedroom'. One cant afford 'Mine' in this 5th costliest city of the world; MUMBAI. For a startup(like me) in Mumbai, faraway from luxary of village 'my bedroom' can be a visible posibility only in the so called SLUM for. That withstanding, lets get back to our night. After a tiring day at office (ahh i can hear you all, it is a moot point), we snuggled back into our unclean cosy bed when a trail of questions popped up in my roomies mind. Should we celebrate Slumdog oscar sweep? what hope are these people talking about?, Its an utter exploitation of indian poverty, an unscrupulous selling of our ugly underbelly. And i agnized at that very moment, its another night of perpetual debate.
But this night had a different intention. One can never deny things shown in the movie. Its very much in our life, in our neighbourhood, with us, in all those roads we walk, in our pavement, in our busstop, everwhere 'omnipresent'. The poverty, vengence, beastly survival, lust, flesh trade, murder, money, communism spreading its gloomy wings of darkness and despair. But they also showed us a light amidst this darkness. A Light called Love; between the brothers, between that couple. It brimmed with HOPE to pass through that darkness.
We realised tonight the need to disseminate this light to these uncouthed kids. The question shifted now, how to help them?. Can a commoner like us bear light to others?. YES WE CAN.
SDM can be an exploit but one should realise it is a stark criticism; in a brit style; right in our face, of our society and of those values & purpose we dreamt of establishing through democracy for last 63 years. The time has come for the intellects to contribute.
Like to know how:
1) Education: can join Teach India Movement and volunteer http://teach.timesofindia.com/index.aspx Or join the organization http://www.teachforindia.org/
2) Those lucky to be part of big corporates can contribute to its CSR activities.
3) There's a thousand NGOs. Join any NGO and contribute.
That night an orkut community to discuss the same was started http://www.orkut.co.in/Main#Community.aspx?cmm=59810994&refresh=1. Join it, share with others ways to spread hope to those deprived kids. Lets provide them a better life.
We HOPE to EXPLOIT the Slumdog Millionaire our way, how abt you?
