VITAL SIGNS PLEASE for Child Actors of Slumdog Millionaire!

We were all thrilled to celebrate the modern day beautiful "rag to riches" Oscar winner (x8)!!

It captured the world's imagination during this global period of economic crisis ,I believe, because it highlighted that love was the real prize,not the money or the illusions of living a rich lifestyle, or of obtaining power!

Underneath the celluloid tale,(ok maybe films are no longer made like this, I am not that old-seriously folks!!) Oh right, where was I, yes, underlying the Hollywood/Bollywood creation is the reality of these children's lives!??!

First photo presents little Rubina giving an interview prior to leaving for the Oscars.

check out the women's looks! oouch!

 This second photo shows their joy and anticipation en route out of Mumbai 

Of course , in LA at the Oscars, looking very westernized indeed,yet loving it!

Below, fatigue and intense emotions upon Rubina's return to Mumbai!

Their reactions returning home to the slums and to their families were concerning as described in The UK's Telegraph publication  By Barney Henderson in Mumbai Last Updated: 2:23PM GMT 01 Mar 2009

"Having flown in a plane, slept in a soft bed and used a clean and functioning bathroom for the first time in their lives at a five-star hotel, the kids say they have now realised what life is like on the other side of the coin and the reality of being back in the slum is hitting them hard."

"I don't want to live here in the slum anymore," Rubina said, wearing the dirt stained ball gown that she has not wanted to take off since Oscars night. "I don't want to sleep on the floor anymore. I want a proper bed and live where the air does not smell of poo. I have seen what it is like in America. Here, there is garbage everywhere, people get angry, swear and shout. I have realised how bad life is here. I just want to get out."

further photos upon their return to the slums

At school exhausted, Azhar is looking confused and as a pediatrician I would say he is not appearing well--- actually as became clear later, he developed a fever of 103° and required antibiotics for an illness as defined by a local doctor!

Rubina settling in ?!

Further excerpts from the Telegraph article cited above:

Social workers have called for the children to be placed in care and state that they need to be given protection – either from Danny Boyle and the film production company or the Indian authorities.

"I cannot believe these kids have just been left like this after being taken to Hollywood. It is bound to affect them psychologically," said social worker Sanjay Bhatia, who works in the slum.

India's Women and Child Development Minister Renuka Chowdhary is "appalled" at the beating that Azhar took at the hands of his father on Friday. Azhar was thrashed for saying he wanted to sleep rather than talk to a journalist who had offered money to his father.

It is my prayer that these children can find peace and hope and can use this experience in a positive way, though I imagine it will place pressures on them to support their families financially 

• - I wondered as a child and also as an adult if people who are poor are made to feel worse when they obtain a point of comparison---does one miss what one does not know? or experience? 
  
• -does not a child within the Indian family unit find comfort,like all children, from their shared meals, from the banter of neighbors and friends, from the love of their parents? 
  
• -has modern life equiped with global communications, TV, radios brought the harshness of these comparisons into a more acute focus?  
  

I do not doubt for a second that the life within these slums is difficult,dangerous and does not offer its inhabitants an easy way to optimize their personal potentials- why? I believe perhaps, they are too burdened with the primary issues of survival ( I call this the strain of survival mode)where there is more fatigue and potentially illness!

 In any case, I hope you will join me in sending them good vibs ,thoughts or prayers !! What are your take about this issue ? 

photos credits - click on them for the URL's