What a book! As you know, I love just about all things India so this book was an instant draw for me. There has been what I believe to be, some "romanticizing" about the life in the slums as a result of the movie "Slumdog Millionaire" but this book will surely knock that idea out of your head. The author spent three years reporting, documenting, photographing and researching in order to pass on her story of what makes the world of the slumdweller tick. She does so with intelligence, respect and deep insight.
Annawadi is a makeshift settlement of 90,000 families on less than an acre in the shadows of luxury hotels near Mumbai airport. As India starts to prosper, the residents of the slum start to get their hopes up that tomorrow will be a better day, a better time, a better life. But of course the airport wants to reclaim the land from these squatters as it would be extremely valuable in vertical space. So even at the outset without even taking account of the human cost, there is conflict and tension, Much of the story follows Abdul, a young teenager who picks and sorts garbage to support his family. Then there is Asha, a very clever woman who recognizes the way to middle class is through political corruption. And you have Kalu, one of the poorest of the poor who is a scrap-metal thief. The story winds through and intertwines the lives of several families - through false accusations of murder, tensions from religion, caste, sex and power. It is a revealing look into a world that I can't in my craziest thoughts imagine ever surviving let alone thriving.
I think you would really enjoy this book. The characters are real and their names are unchanged. They are as the author states, "neither mythic nor pathetic and certainly not passive." And they still linger in my thoughts...
254 pages
Annawadi is a makeshift settlement of 90,000 families on less than an acre in the shadows of luxury hotels near Mumbai airport. As India starts to prosper, the residents of the slum start to get their hopes up that tomorrow will be a better day, a better time, a better life. But of course the airport wants to reclaim the land from these squatters as it would be extremely valuable in vertical space. So even at the outset without even taking account of the human cost, there is conflict and tension, Much of the story follows Abdul, a young teenager who picks and sorts garbage to support his family. Then there is Asha, a very clever woman who recognizes the way to middle class is through political corruption. And you have Kalu, one of the poorest of the poor who is a scrap-metal thief. The story winds through and intertwines the lives of several families - through false accusations of murder, tensions from religion, caste, sex and power. It is a revealing look into a world that I can't in my craziest thoughts imagine ever surviving let alone thriving.
I think you would really enjoy this book. The characters are real and their names are unchanged. They are as the author states, "neither mythic nor pathetic and certainly not passive." And they still linger in my thoughts...
254 pages
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