Comments on: Indian Winter, Slums, Slums and More Slums

By: Quirk Quotient

Quirk Quotient — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 23:11:24 +0000

I think us Indians (or should I say most immigrants) as a whole have a very large advantage over the developed world, when it comes to creating impressions about our country. Indian diaspora is huge, very well educated and connected and very well spread. For us, how we intereact with people of different nationalities in different countries will have a much larger impact on the impression that people from other countries have about India and Indians. Showing 4 of 6 programs on slums should not make a huge impact to the general impression about India and Indians. According to the planning commission of India 27.5% of Indians were below the poverty line (2004-05 numbers). So maybe 1.5 or 2 out of 6 programs would have been a more equitable distribution. They could have used the other 2 programs for showing saas-bahu soaps. That would have been much more interesting and maybe more representative as well.

By: Devanshi

Devanshi — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 14:58:57 +0000

Couldnt agree more!! Its insane how many times the word ‘Slumdog’ is used, and cant deal with how Indian Winter is so obsessed with slums or the super rich!
and terribly annoying how they seem to shape the idea of India

By: Amit

Amit — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 03:47:43 +0000

“[..] but it is exactly this attitude that has ensured that poverty remains in our country.”

MrDalal, how so? Please explain.

Are “this attitude” and “focusing on poverty” mutually exclusive? And pray, tell me, what can a mango man do to alleviate poverty? Isn’t that the job of policy makers?

Besides, if India’s middle class is booming and exploding, is that not an indication that many have pulled themselves up and out from the levels of poverty?

By: MrDalal

MrDalal — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 17:02:41 +0000

Neha viswanathan

“but a little something else isn’t bad?” – apologies, but it is exactly this attitude that has ensured that poverty remains in our country. A little, anything else is bad. I was not going to write this comment, but couldnt stop myself. Think, is all I can say.

By: Pickled Politics » If you like slums so much, why not go live there?

Pickled Politics » If you like slums so much, why not go live there? — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 09:38:20 +0000

[...] part of Channel 4’s Indian Winter of programming, which takes this fetish to another level. Neha says: Of the six programmes, four are somehow or the other based on slums. And the one film is Om [...]

By: Varun

Varun — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 10:49:01 +0000

“Novel” approach to Indian slums…slums are not just all over the movies, but novels as well..take Shantaram as an example!

By: Ganja Turtle

Ganja Turtle — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 23:54:50 +0000

Amit Verma (India Uncut) calls this phenomena “poverty porn”… I am tempted to agree.