The success of Slumdog Millionaire has suddenly brought the poor into prominence. The origin of the word slumdog goes to two words, “slum-dweller” and “underdog”. The movie of a Mumbai slum-dweller striking it rich has struck gold on the box office world wide. As someone so appropriately and succinctly said, “Nothing succeeds like success”. Here too, the word slumdog has become a magnet for success.
The world wide web is a true representation of the human psyche. The word was non-existent a few months back and today happens to be the most sought after. All of a sudden there is a rush for slumdog related domain names and business ventures. The domain name slumdogtours and slumdogtravels have already been taken; try some different combination if you want a share in the slumdog pie. I am into the profession of maps and GIS; will there be slumdog maps and may be slumdog GIS. But be sure to send a Slumdog Greeting Card to your loved ones on some slumdog occasion, say the slumdog Valentine’s Day.
The movie has spawned interest in the slums, the underprivileged of the modern world. The countries like Mexico, Brazil, India and many other third world countries which witnessed lopsided economic growth in the last two decades has magnified the rich-poor divide. The IT, BPO, KPO or finance guys are spending more than the annual earnings of a slumdog family in a single day or even on a single meal. So don’t you think the world financial crisis was to happen, if not now then tomorrow. How can economies sustain such plundering of resources by few?
The well known Mumbai slums of Dharavi made famous by the art movies like Ardh Satya, Bhumika in the eighties now have an icon status in the world. The Google Trends suddenly shows multifold increase in searches related to Dharavi, Slums, Mumbai slums, slumdog, slum travels and so on. Mumbai is replete with many Slumdog tours and travel companies. Many tour and travel companies have already developed special slum visit packages for the Westerns intending to travel to Indian slums. May be these tours and travels to the slums will add some money to the deserving pockets too. The tourism has a new chapter, the slum tourism. Be part of it to give to someone who needs it the most.