Alex Butts

                Excellent. That is how I would describe Slumdog Millionaire. I offer that one word review with the caveat that, had I not spent 7 months here, I would probably have thought the movie was average at best. However, the depictions in the movie are, from my perspective, spot on. It does a phenomenal job of showing the shades of gray that exist here.

                There’s a fair bit of controversy over here, stemming from depictions of the slums and the false claim that the movie refers to Indians or slum dwellers as “dogs.” I think most of the critics have not seen the movie, as the line of dialogue, from which the title is derived, is spoken by one Indian to another. I’d say that there are probably two underlying issues here: the first is that the movie was directed a white guy (hence the comments that the movie refers to Indians as dogs) and that the movie doesn’t paint India in the best light. This is a place that likes to put its best foot forward, so while the depictions may be accurate (half of Mumbai’s inhabitants are slum dwellers), they’re not the most pleasant. Finally, I don’t think they understand that the protagonist is a slum dweller who is portrayed as a tough and bright young man.

                What I was really quite impressed with was how the movie picked up some of the more subtle aspects of life India that you wouldn’t notice if you haven’t lived here. Things like how condescending the host was to the main character because he was a chai wallah. As an aside, a wallah is somebody who brings or sells something and is a pretty menial job; there are people like pineapple wallahs, chai wallahs, air con wallahs etc. It might seem like this is a unique trait, but it’s not uncommon for people in higher orders of life to treat people like wallahs in that manner. While we may find it a bit rude, in Hindu culture it’s not necessarily rude because people believe that they must have done something right or wrong in a prior life to have ended up where they are today.

                The other point that I appreciated was the portrayal of foreigners who throw their money around in a rather arrogant nature, thinking that they’re doing some good by giving beggars money. I don’t begrudge them for trying to turn a quick buck off of foreigners who are relatively wealthy, nor do I begrudge the people who give them money for being ignorant, it’s just that often they’re not doing as much good as they think. For example, I was having a drink the other day and there were a group of street kids, who I have had a rapport with for the past month or so, who got two Israelis to buy them all a meal and sit in the restaurant, which annoyed the owner to no end. The reality of the situation is that the kids only ate half of the food, at most, then packaged up the rest and went on their way. While I don’t know what happened to the food, I know that the kids are well fed, so I’m going to place a bet that the kids ended up selling the food to other beggars, bringing the money back to their parents or the head of their begging mafia. Begging is quite a complex topic here—there was an article in the paper about a guy who begs every day, yet owns over $100k in property. And he’s not mentally ill, he’s just that good at begging that he can make it a very lucrative profession.

                I’ll elaborate more on the movie when I get back because I don’t want to ruin it for anybody, but I’d definitely say that I recommend it.

On the front page of the local paper today was a story about two teenagers who invited a classmate out, beat him to death with a hammer, and, after they killed him, demanded ransom from his parents. Their reason for killing a classmate and demanding ransom? They needed money to get a paper or something so that they could get into an engineering school.

 This type of thing isn’t necessarily uncommon. I was shocked when some of the kids in my tutoring group were getting 50% on quizzes and Brother Joseph was happy because it meant that they were passing. He explained that, by law, students get spotted a bunch of points (I forget how many) because so many students were committing suicide due to low grades. This, to me, is curing a symptom and not the problem.

These kids aren’t killing themselves, or their classmates, because of a grade, they’re killing themselves because of the immense societal and familial pressure on them to be something. It’s a stark contrast from my philosophy and what I believe is the philosophy of many Americans. We, as a people, tend to want our kids do well in school, go to a college that suits them well and makes them happy, and do something with their lives that they enjoy. If both your parents are doctors, but you want to be a first grade teacher because it’s what makes you happy, typically your family is happy just because you’re happy and you’re motivated to show up to work every day.

In India university is, from my perspective, more of a means to an end. If you get into university W, you can be X, our family will look like Y and you can marry Z. And if you don’t get into university W then none of that will happen and, whether it’s real or perceived, the student feels like he brought shame to his family.  If your parents are doctors, it would be a coup for you to be anything but a doctor. If I were Indian, I would be in my father’s business right now and anything less would be unacceptable, because it would raise questions about the family.

This country is liberalizing, but status is still an important thing here. One of the wealthiest men that I know in the US makes a lot of money and enjoys the trappings of a good life: nice cars, nice home, eats out at nice restaurants etc. However, if you saw him on the weekend, you’d never guess how wealthy he is because he prefers to wear cheap tee shirts and gym shorts on the weekend. He hangs out with people who are wealthier than he is, and with people who make 1/20^th of what he makes.

On the other hand, if you have a little bit of money here you dress a certain way, act a certain way and hang out with people that make as much money as you do or more so. A lot of money is spent on joining clubs meant to exclude people who can’t afford to be there. That’s not a knock on one way of doing it or another, but here a lot of emphasis on  is put on having the most stylish cell phone, clothes  or whatever.

                Working in Bombay has been quite an experience so far and, if nothing else, will be a great learning experience for me as I move forward in life. This city is, according to Indians, “just like New York” and has a “very fast pace of life.” I don’t know if I agree with either sentiment at face value—barring people running to catch a train or bus because they’re running late and people taking my money, I don’t think I’ve seen anybody do anything particularly fast here—they are probably true relative to the country. There is a certain professional culture here, but it is, again, relative to India. I find that to be quite a challenge as somebody doing a program based around social entrepreneurship. To get something done, from starting a new initiative to getting a decision made, you have to want it, and the end result won’t always make sense. For example: the orphanage just got repainted and Brother chose a new color for the buildings. Grey. Ignoring the fact that India is a place filled with bright and vibrant colors, I don’t know if you could pick something more industrial, depressing and befitting of a movie depiction of an orphanage.

                With respect to starting a new initiative, I feel that being a foreigner is doubly tough. Indians view you as a guest, and will go to lengths to avoid telling a guest something unpleasant, even if it is the truth. This leads to a lot of hollow “yes’s.”

                Also, businesses here seem to be quite autocratic. Some have more employee input than others, but at the end of the day the word of the boss may as well be the word of God. At the school (I use orphanage and school interchangeably), staff members seem to have plenty of complaints and input, but nobody says anything. I was discussing how the new interior paint job looked quite nice and he went on about how it makes the place look first class and how there’s no reason why St. Catherine’s shouldn’t be as good as any other school in Bombay. Part of me wanted to scream when I heard that. That’s the exact attitude that I’ve been trying to preach since I got here, but felt like I was the only one who was saying it.

                Trust is a weird thing here too, in that it’s either there or it’s not. On the negative end, there’s a self perpetuating culture of mistrust here. A customer thinks the vendor is trying to screw him and vice versa, so it makes negotiations quite difficult. It kind of struck my first few weeks here, as I was used to dealing with people in SE Asia. In SE Asia, vendor/customer negotiations are friendly affairs, where the ultimate goal is reach a mutually beneficial agreement. For example, I was in Thailand for New Years and was negotiating a price for a motorcycle ride. I told the guy where I wanted to go, he told me the price, there were smiles, friendly banter and a joke about how I couldn’t even afford sleeves, let alone his price (I was wearing a cutoff tee), brought the price to something that was fair and mutually agreeable. Dealings here are more about each party maximizing his benefit, and they can take a bit of a nasty tone. The worst offenders, by far, are the cab drivers, since the metered fare isn’t really negotiable. The meters here use a conversion with a bit of math involved, so the reading doesn’t represent the actual cost. I learned a formula which I know is fair and leaves a bit of a tip for the driver. However, it’s not uncommon for cab drivers to accost me and demand more money. I even had one guy throw the money back at me.  The cabbies must have a nice racket going because they’re vehemently protesting a measure that would force them to install electronic meters that display the distance and the proper fare.

                On the other end of the spectrum, when it’s there, it’s there. There are places that let me walk out without paying because they know that I’m good for the money or that I’ll be or something along those lines. I think you’d be hard pressed to find bars and restaurants in the US that’ll let you do that, especially these days. On the flip side, there are people that I have no problem leaving money with them for something in the future, because I know that they’re good for it.

On a bit of a personal note, I’ve found that I’m in a bit of a weird age group here. I don’t identify with people my age here, yet my age is somewhat off putting to people that I do identify with. The issue isn’t money or education or anything like that. It stems from the fact that at 22, kids here are still under their parents’ thumb and will live at home until they’re married. This creates what I see as a lot of immaturity. For example, I met up with a student here, who I had known for all of four hours, and went into detail about some of their most recent of best romantic rendezvous. I didn’t know how to react; we surely weren’t close enough for me to really care or be impressed by that. Frankly, I’ve long since matured past the point where I care what my friends do or who they do it with. Another example comes from the local edition of GQ that I was flipping through. This is a magazine that’s geared towards young professional men and, fancying myself as a young professional man, I decided to read the article about how to be a gentleman. This article had tips such as “look at people when you meet them,” “don’t lie to women that you’re involved with,” and “don’t check your phone during dinner and, if you have to check it, ask your companion if it’s ok and then excuse yourself.” I don’t find these to be the marks of a gentleman as much as I find them to be the hallmarks of a polite, mature adult. I don’t mean any of that as a knock on them; we’re all products of our environments and the American style of moving away to college at 18, move out of the house by early to mid 20s seems to foster maturity and growth more than the Indian style.

The other thing is that when kids can get out and let off steam, they go all in. Yesterday I was sitting and having a drink, waiting for some friends to show up, when out of nowhere some drunk kid showed up and tried to pick a fight with me for literally no reason. I was kind of baffled by this since my only two offences were being white and sitting quietly at a table. After I told his one sober friend, sober being a relative term, to take him away and the friend apologized to me, he thought he was tough and won some monumental victory or something. I fail to see how it’s tough to pick a fight when you have three friends and I’m sitting there alone and, perhaps a more egregious crime in the realm of toughness, is to say stuff to/about me in a tongue that I don’t understand. But what do I know?

The other side of it, which I think is nice, is that the Indians believe that they’re doing it to take care of their parents. One guy put it this way to me: “My parents watched me grow up and took care of me, so why shouldn’t I take care of them while they grow old?”  

For some reason, India gets the worst/cheesiest parts of American culture. After watching a little bit of Bollywood (I can stomach 5 minute intervals,) I think part of it that Indian culture is more in tune with those parts of American culture. It’s hard to put into words what it’s like. I think the perception here of what’s big in America is sort of what I thought the cool teenagers looked like and wore when I was 10, if that makes any sense. The only difference is that I was ten 12 years ago and they’re still getting the same stuff here. For example: I received a Bart Simpson tee, and two pairs of jean shorts that are literally as long as a pair of girls shorts. The gifts are quite a nice gesture, but I’m honestly never going to wear any of it, so I think I’m going to donate them to people who will actually use/appreciate them before I leave.

On the tee shirts; I kind of get the vibe that India is a place where companies send their unused/unwanted tee shirts, kind of like what they do with the Super Bowl loser’s tees. I’ve seen more Limp Bizkit tees here than I’ve seen in the in the past 7 years in the US. I’ve also seen a Byun Hyung Kim Boston Red Sox tee shirt; Kim hasn’t played for the Red Sox in at least 5 years. Also, at the school, I’ve seen some…interesting tees. One kid had a shirt with a picture of a pot leaf that said something like “don’t step on the grass” (I have pics of that one). Another had a shirt that said “The more hair I lose, the more head I get.” I was about 50-50 shocked and amused at it. Part of me felt compelled to tell somebody that it was an extremely inappropriate shirt, especially for a Catholic run school, but I felt that it would lead to me having to explain why it’s inappropriate and potentially horrifying a Catholic monk. Ignorance is bliss is guess.