Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life in Mumbai’s Annawadi Slum

By ⋅ February 10, 2012 ⋅ Post a comment
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Behind the Beautiful ForeversMarco Werman talks with Katherine Boo, author of “Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity”.

Boo’s book chronicles the lives of the inhabitants of the Annawadi slum, just outside the Mumbai airport.

Following several characters and families, it paints a grim portrait of day to day life for India’s poorest citizens, and explores the ways in which the outside world and the world of the slum intersect.


Discussion

4 comments for “Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life in Mumbai’s Annawadi Slum”

  • Anonymous

    These are beautiful people in heart and soul…..I also went to India and was driven to write a book about the people (Hello? Hello?? Hello??? – a fearless view of a world without walls).  It would do most westerners well to experience these places first hand…we have much to learn from the human spirit of these souls.

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_TJ5NDCWMRJ7SMR2OCKWK2B4L5M RK

    I am so tired of another westerner writing about India’s slums.  Is this all that you see in a grand India full of rich culture/music and heritage etc?  I am not the one to hide or shy away from reality but enough is enough. It seems like every where I turn, all I see is another book/movie (Slum dog millionaire2 anyone?) about India’s slums.  For a change, why don’t westerners write about the phenomenal culture/open mindedness (much more than America) etc about India?  Why not write about the thousands who are working so hard to help these poor?  Why not write about the huge # of women’s organizations that are helping women make money with all kinds of loans or programs? 

    It’s not like India is the only country with slums. May be the fact that India/China are emerging so strong is why one finds the need to keep bringing up the same poverty/slums issue over and over again.   I would like to challenge this author and others to write a book about slums/poverty in China!  Despite China’s enormous wealth, the poor there are struggling.  Worse yet, they can’t protest or fight for themselves, unlike in democratic India.  This author wouldn’t be allowed to talk about or film such slums in China and she would either be jailed or thrown out of China if she attempted to write about China’s poverty or human rights abuse. So I guess the only thing left for her and others like her to do is to keep perpetuating and focusing on all the  negatives in India!    It seems western media is always pussy footing when it comes to Chinese unfair practices (including currency fixing!).   They are afraid to upset Chinese media or govt just in case they are needed to rescue America or EU as is the case right now.

    • rahul sood

       i think RK you are overreacting here. If you spend a little more time understanding Katherine  you would not have these views. She has spent all her life writing about the poor, women and children. Even in States she has written only about the poor. She happens to be married to an Indian who actually egged her to write a book on Mumbai. Since her specialty has been to highlight the cause of poor no matter where they are this topic came naturally to her.

  • http://www.facebook.com/bob.bryant Bob Bryant

    Thank you for a revealing look at a glimmer of hope in a sea of toxic sorrow. Good, solid reporting.  

    Bob Bryant
    Burbank, CA.