Slumdog Millionaire
Oct 19 2010
I was originally going to do a post about all the various issues I’ve had lately with my car, my garage door, and other stuff, but then I rented and watched Slumdog Millionaire last night. My car stopped working last Frid
ay but they couldn’t figure out what was wrong with it. Fortunately I happened to be near the dealer and was able to drive it into the lot before it died again. They give free rental cars so I just had to pay about $50 for the diagnostic even though I had a nice new rental car for 4 days. My garage door stopped working Monday night even though I had just replaced the motor just a month ago and spent more money than I’d like to say to get it fixed. I was about to lose it when they told me they would charge me for the service trip, but when he came out he discovered it was a warranty issue so I didn’t get charged. So compared to the life of many street kids in India, I have a pretty sweet set of periodic challenges (knock on wood).
Slumdog Millionaire was a great movie and apparently the Academy thought the same because it won 8 awards in 2009. It’s about the life of orphan street kids in India. I’ve been to India and Sri Lanka and the poverty and abysmal living conditions of many kids is real. Maybe I’m a little cynical these days but the happy ending seemed a bit surreal given the horrible hardships they endured. Spoiler Alert: The main character wins 20 million rupees, he is finally reunited with the girl he fell in love with as a boy, his brother who betrayed him shoots the bad guy and gets killed in the process, etc. However, I’m sure the visuals were even more dramatic on the big screen. If those poor street kids in India can have a positive, entrepreneurial attitude when everything and everyone around them can’t be trusted, then who am I to complain.
One day I hope to take my kids to a true 3rd world country so they will fully appreciate the United States of America and what a nice life we have here. I feel so blessed to be living in America. And hopefully they will finally appreciate it when I tell them “there are poor kids in India who would love to have your food” when they say don’t like something on their plates!
Author: Aruni | Filed under: entrepreneurship, movie reviews, parenting, random stuff | Tags: garage door issues, india, slumdog millionaire, sri lanka, street kids | 2 Comments »
Really great movie!! We really loved this movie and I agree it puts a perspective on any “hard” times we might have. I have said many times to my 5-year old “Some kids don’t even get to eat dinner every day!” I wish they “got it” that just because you don’t like something on your plate doesn’t mean you complain and not eat it. I guess it’s all relative when we complain about our car breaking down when some people don’t have cars. 🙂
@Nicole – Yes, it’s all relative and it’s so easy to lose perspective. I have to remind myself daily of all the great things I have going on. Knock on wood! 🙂