While in Nairobi, my partner in crime Kelly and I deicided to watch the movie Slumdog Millionaire as recommended by State goers who had seen or heard of the movie. Knowing the setting was India, and we happened to be heading to India, we decided to check it out.
Now, don’t worry I’m not going to play out the whole movie before you with words, and I’m not going to ruin it for you if you haven’t already seen it. I am however going to point out a few scenes.
Notable scene 1: Street kids hang out a train station and hop trains for the day. Some of them sell things, some of them pick-pocket, some of them beg. At the end of the day they congregate together to sleep in the trashed station and the surrounding area.
Reality: Today we walked through the Kolkata train station. Each night nearly 200 street children find there “home” in the trashed station and surrounding areas. I kept thinking, “I’ve seen this in the movies, but this is REAL.”
Notable scene 2: At one point a child is ripped from the arms of one child and put into the arms of another by “the head honcho” in order to make more money when begging.
Reality: Yesterday while sitting in a bookstore there was a young girl outside carrying a baby boy. She looked in the window smiling at me, clearly trying to communicate how needy she was due to the child she was caring for. Moments later she returned to display a baby girl in tow, and once again tried to communicate her needs. I suspect she is not actually responsible for either baby.
Upon arrival to Kolkata we were given “the scoop” from a reliable organization. We were informed how begging is a huge problem here and that there is an underground, mafia-like network that has a large portion of control over people begging. It is almost like a conspiracy to trick the everday street goer into giving to the beggars, which in turn perpetuates the system. Women will rent children for the day to make more money. Children will work together with vendors and resell their gifted food items back to the vendor from which the food was purchased. It is a horrible cycle, that may do not want to be freed from because begging is actually profitable.
It was a good movie. Just keep in mind that as the credits roll and you turn off the TV, it’s not actually over. People are living that life out over here. THIS is real.
