The real picture

Slumdog Millionaire, has provoked some unusually strong criticism from the average Mumbaikar. They feel that the portrayal of India(n's) in the film is downright degrading and the storyline projects an India whose cup is half empty. Sadanand Dhume on OutlookIndia.com has a different perspective.

Notwithstanding the giant strides made over the past 18 years, Indian criticism of Slumdog also reveals the chasm between the country’s self-perception and projection and any reasonable measure of its achievements. India may boast homegrown programs in space exploration and nuclear power, but -- as a first time visitor to India immediately notices and as the film mercilessly reveals -- it also struggles to provide its people with electricity, sanitation and drinking water. About half of Indian women are illiterate, a higher percentage than in Laos, Cambodia or Myanmar. It is at number 122 -- between Nepal and Lesotho -- on the World Bank index that measures ease of doing business, and 85 on the global corruption index maintained by the anti-graft NGO Transparency International. To put it bluntly, the squalor of the slums depicted in Slumdog is closer to reality than an elaborately choreographed Bollywood dance sequence shot on location in Switzerland.

An individual seems to be taking a leisurly open air leak at one of the numerous communally sanctioned open air garbage dumping spots around the city of Bangalore. I took this picture during a recent visit to India.