| We, the common people, live in cities, move on | | | | villages close to my hometown Narsinghpur in MP, India |
| two-wheelers or four-wheelers, beat summers and | | | | and dedicated visits to slums and downtowns in |
| winters by electric appliances and live a life of modern | | | | different metros. |
| human beings. We might not lead luxurious lives; yet, | | | | I had the same feeling when I spotted poor people in |
| we get food to eat, clothes to wear and shelters for | | | | the US also. I happened to visit Washington DC and |
| covering our heads. We are busy in earning our bread | | | | New York while being on a long stay in Ashburn, |
| and struggling to survive. | | | | Virginia. I happened to find a poor man squatting on the |
| Nevertheless, there are more unfortunate people, in | | | | floor of a staircase in a metro-station when I was on a |
| rural India, who do not get even one time food to fill | | | | trip to New York. |
| their bellies. They are undernourished because of | | | | When I went to visit Reston Town Centre near |
| prolonged starvation. They struggle around for getting | | | | Ashburn, for spending an evening, I saw a poor man |
| a handful of food with eyes sunk in their eye-sockets | | | | on a road crossing, holding a placard in his hands |
| and rib-cage bones projecting out of their sun-burnt | | | | written with a request asking for alms. His image |
| dark skins. We on the other hand discuss for hours | | | | continued flashing in my mind even when I was dining in |
| reaching out for the best possible sunscreen lotion on | | | | a Chinese restaurant 'Big Bowl'. |
| internet and find solutions for sun tanning. | | | | When I went to Maryland for shopping of some Indian |
| It is not only in rural India; the people living in the slums in | | | | stuff, I felt as-if I was in an Indian town a place |
| metros also live lives that are even more pathetic. I | | | | dominated by middle class crowd, mainly from Asia, |
| remember a couple of poor children picking grains of | | | | Africa, Mexico and likes. The American glamour and |
| boiled rice from an open drain in Pune. Such scenes | | | | luxurious style of life was just missing in Maryland. |
| are common where there are open drains near | | | | There were very few cars around; most of the |
| restaurants and the housekeeping staff dump leftover | | | | people were moving around on foot. |
| food along with garbage. | | | | After seeing the people living in super-luxury on one |
| That is the reason that I felt offended when I read | | | | hand and on the other hand, having seen the poorest |
| reviews about the British film 'Slum-dog Millionaire'. I | | | | of the poor living in utter-poverty and struggling to |
| observed with pain and helplessness the inhuman | | | | survive in a starving hell, I have concluded that the |
| neglect of the slum kids after the release of the film, its | | | | religions and casts and creeds followed across the |
| box-office success and the award giving ceremony in | | | | world, are only eyewashes... |
| Oscars. I felt it so intensely because I have seen | | | | In reality, there are only two religions and they are 'The |
| poverty so very closely whenever I made trips to | | | | Rich' and 'The Poor'. |