SLUMDOGS

Thank you Simi, for reminding us of the power of words.
Since the last few weeks any newspaper that you open you will see the impact that the term 'slumdog' has had on our media, our intellectuals and the rich, who either support it or are against it.

I am not sure whether any of us here in India like this term,and when this is translated into local language then it is worse, I mean in Oriya we would translate it as, 'basti ra kukura', terrible but I think one has to accept it, the very fact that a slumdog is a term that is now being used to describe the marginalized, vulnerable, the poor, the unserved, the underserved makes it all the more important for us to see where have we gone wrong especially while developing programmes and initatives for the marginalized(slumdogs).

I am sure that SLUMDOGS the movie which is currently the flavour of the moment, will be used unashamedly by us both positively and negatively, till we wait for another movie to depict scenes equally breathtaking, distasteful to our middle class sensibilities, very real but unbelievable.