Slumdog Millionaire

When I tell people how poor I was growing up, they want to know "how poor." Well, when your poor friends call you poor, that is poor. But there's a difference between growing up poor in the farm and growing up poor in the slum. I didn't grow up in the slum, so watching Slumdog this weekend was pretty gruesome to me. Yet, the movie stirred up something in me - something warm and fuzzy.

The story is about 2 orphaned boys; Salim and Jamal. Salim lived for the moment using his head, Jamal lived for the future using his heart. Jamal wasn't as tough as Salim, but he survived the street life because of his determination to live. To live for Latika. Latika became a mistress to a rich and powerful man, so when Jamal finally found her, he asked her to run away with him - she asked him, "What are we going to live on?" "Love" he said. Then she gave him the goo-goo eyes....but she can't run away with him.

Jamal joined "Who wants to be a millionaire" and won 20 million rupees, not because he wanted the money. He wanted to be on tv so Latika will see him. The police almost beat him to a pulp because they thought he cheated. He didn't cheat, he knew the answers - the street taught him the answers. "When someone asks me a question, I tell them the answer" he told the police captain.

I love the movie because it's simply following a basic principle in life: 1. When you find your passion in life (something or someone) fight for it 2. When someone asks you for something and you have it to give, don't withhold it. 3. Never make money the motivating factor to pursue your passion, nor let money stop you from pursuing your passion.

I keep telling Chat that before I die, I am going to do 2 things: Be a vagabond and travel by train (like Paul Theroux) across Asia and find a man I can elope with then get married at sunrise in some remote village in Nepal. I could have eloped already but when I asked this man to elope with me he asked the same question Latika asked -what are we going to live on? I said, "On your income. You have a job, right?" He didn't give me the goo-goo eyes.
Chat said I should not stop dreaming, because more likely that's all it's going to be, a dream. But....Jamal could be right - "It's destiny."