Slum dwellers are often treated as social pariahs and have become a marginalized section in any society. In fact, a burgeoning population of the metropolitan Mumbai city, which is the third most expensive office market, lives in slums like ‘Annawadi’. Unfortunately, these people find hard to escape from the endless dilemmas of day to day life, even though unprecedented economic booming has taken place for more than two decades as a result of global market capitalism. Katherine Boo, in her remarkable book “Behind the beautiful forevers” unfolds the world beyond ‘undercity’ people who are the residents of Mumbai slum named Annawadi, which is located beside the road to Mumbai airport in the shadow of luxury hotels. By documenting the deplorable …show more content…
status of those who live under poor housing conditions, despicable sanitation and a non-existent sewage system, she tries to figure out those whose life in a heap of hope and despair, by fighting out every day in Mumbai streets. Boo exposes how the wavery in the global economy affects these poverty stricken communities and the hurdles they face while striving for better life.
Nevertheless twenty five years of globalization caused quirky economic growth and rise of standard of living in Mumbai. Yet 40% of Mumbai residents live in slum even though it has been listed as largest city in India with its luxury goods and glimmering facilities. This paper traces out how the economic growth in metropolitan cities has failed to deliver much to the most needed, vulnerable poor living in slums like Annawadi and the hindrances before them on their way of ameliorating their standard of living in the light of Katherine Boo’s popular book “Behind the beautiful forevers: life, death, and hope in a Mumbai …show more content…
undercity. Key words: slum dwellers, Annawadi, corruption, marginalized In a world of corruption, it becomes hard for one to live morally ,behave thoughtfully when the stench of corruption pervades in all spheres like public services ,education, health care etc.''If the house is crooked and crumbling, and the land on which it sits uneven, is it possible to make anything lie straight?”(Katherine Boo). These two lines reflect the heartrending reality of inhabitants of Annawadi where jobbery permeates everywhere. “Behind the beautiful forevers”, a notable book by Katherine Boo brings forth a visceral account on the life, death and hope of the inhabitants of Annawadi slum in Mumbai. Annawadi slum consists of three thousand residents who live in cramped huts, where running water is available only for three hours a day and some of them trap frogs and rats for filling out their meals and, a few among them have scrub grass and weeds.
Besides, the frog-eaters gave other non-frog eating, non-weed eating Annawadians “a felt sense of their upward mobility” (Boo Chapter 1). Nevertheless, Boo exposes the distressing picture of the slum residents, their struggles to escape from devastating poverty and most significantly, the conflicts under the clutches of corrupt officials by focusing on three families of – Abdul, expert sifter of garbage, Fatima, the emotionally troubled cripple and, Asha, the unofficial slum lord. The most significant thing is that “almost no one in the slum was counted poor by official Indian bench marks“(Boo 1) since the economic liberalization began. Out of these only six residents have permanent jobs. Annawadi sits on “a stretch where new India and old India collided and made new India late” (Boo 1) and even though the physical setting of slum is brimming with possibilities, most of them make their living through scavenging and trash
sorting. ‘Beautiful forever’, the slogan for ads of Italianate floor tiles from which the title of Boo’s book is originated, is plastered on the concrete wall which separates the airport and the Annawadi slum. It brings out the grim reality of the impoverished poor who live in small patch of land ‘behind’ the shining international airport which is ‘beautiful forever’ with its elegant outlook and striking facilities. Once Cabinet minister had announced regarding the new gleaming airport terminal, “the most magnificent building since independence”. The boy named Mirchi says “Everything around is roses. And we’re the shit in between” (Boo Prologue) owing to glitzy hotels and glossy new international airport around them. Boo outlines the life inside undercity by narrating the circumstances in which certain key residents of this slum live. At all times, these people live with a foreboding that their shelter might be bulldozed by government or corporate authorities. They always mope over the agonies before them like getting a steady job for themselves, providing their children basic education, leading a life without any water-borne illness etc. The pivotal figure among the residents is Abdul of Husain’s family, a young resident of this slum who purchases garbage from waste-pickers and resells to recycling plants and sees “fortune beyond counting”(Boo 3) in the garbage that elite rich people throw away. As Boo writes ‘’some called him garbage and left it at that” (Boo 1). Other garbage pickers like Sunil, an adolescent boy of twelve years old after booting out from orphanage, struggles hard to escape from harsh reality, as Boo states “He was therefore used to the transition: reaccustoming himself to scavenging work, to rats that emerged from the woodpile to bite him as he slept, and to a state of almost constant hunger” (Boo 3). Some has to get involved in thievery to survive as Kalu who is a fifteen year old, homeless metal scrap thief, believes they may get the good times which they ‘’fully enjoy”(Boo 2). A few do some temporary jobs in nearby hotels as Rahul, Asha’s son who once says to Mirchi, Abdul’s brother, “if the manager sees you looking at the guests, he’ll fire you, take your whole pay –You have to focus on the tables and the rug. Seriously, you can’t look. Not even at the rich people’s toilets. Security will chuck you out.”(Boo 1). This is what the life of destitute inhabitants who make their living out of the cast-offs and leftovers of opulent class. Asha, the one who fights to become slumlord goes through unscrupulous ways to allay her children’s poverty. ‘Tell me, bastard. Shall I strip naked and dance for you now?” These are the replies to men who walk over her “large breasts and her small drunken husband” (Boo 2). Manju, Asha’s daughter, Annawadi’s most idealistic person, believes that her graduation in English and teacher training may favour her way out of the slum. The crux of the plot lies in the self-immolation of Fatima, the crippled woman who lived next doors to Husain’s family, and the dismal circumstances this Muslim migrant family face due to the false accusation of inciting her to suicide. ‘’It seemed to him that in Annawadi, fortunes derived not just from what people did, or how well they did it, but from the accidents and catastrophes they dodged.’’(Boo Prologue). Having said that, the havoc engendered owing to this horrendous incident in Abdul’s family ushered them into unforeseen occurrences. The interconnected life of these ‘undercity’ people elicits interpersonal conflicts and traumatic incidents they undergo owing to the so called ‘overcity’ people, obstructing the meager of earnings of these destitute people and smashing their hopes and ambitions. Nevertheless, twenty five years of globalization caused quirky economic growth and rise of standard of living in Mumbai. Yet 40% of Mumbai residents live in slums even though it has been listed as largest city in India with its luxury goods and glimmering facilities. On the peripheries of the society these dispossessed people are trying to find niche in global market economic system. The hurdles they confront in their persistent search for the ways to escape from painful awareness of their life are hard. The significant reasons which hinder the progress of this community are the corruption of all kinds they encounter in their daily life, disunity among slum dwellers and even the global recession. Indeed the impregnable work ethics of Abdul, the main bread winner of Husain’s family enriched the status of the family. All of them have imaginations, hopes and dreams as anybody else in the world. They always speak “of better lives casually, as if fortune were a cousin arriving on Sunday, as if the future would look nothing like the past.” Abdul “believed his own dreams properly aligned to his capacities” (Boo Prologue); and his indomitable effort to reach to a position of prosperity can also be seen here. In fact, these people have fervid desires in their life and all of them are striving for a better life through all possible ways. “As every slum dweller knew, there were three main ways out of poverty: finding an entrepreneurial niche, as the Husains had found in garbage; politics and corruption, in which Asha placed her hopes; and education” (Boo 4). Abdul of Husain’s family, having eight siblings, with mother Zehrunisa and tuberculosis affected father had been putting aside the money from his growing garbage-sorting business for the land in Vasai with the cherished dream to settle down outside Mumbai for long. On the very day when he was placing floor tiles and inserting new cooking shelf to upgrade his hut, Fatima, sharing the wall of Husain’s hut creates rage by pouring kerosene over herself due to her envy towards Husain’s upward mobility. “And at the heart of envy was
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