Fort George

Our last stop, albeit not Jewish per se was a visit to one of the slums in Mumbai. For those that saw the hit winner of 8 Academy Awards movie from 2008, SlumDog Millionaire, the sights and sounds and activities in this movie are replicated in real life here 15 years later albeit we understand it much better now (Note: READ ON to see what happens).

The area is very depressed, but the people make it work with their little but organized homes, TVs, sports for the kids, shopping, and many Hindu Temples. The motto of the Hindus are “right conduct, right knowledge and right speech” and all the people we have met seemed to follow that. It is sad that so few move up from poverty, there are still so many. In the past year 150,000 moved out of poverty. Great right? But there are so many millions still in dire straits even though the government helps them with housing that cost $4/month, free education, and healthcare. The good news is that life expectancy that was 31 in 1947 is now in the 60s and 70s for those that live with less stress.

We both expected crowds with pushing and shoving (there ARE 24 million people), various bad smells (which were minimal and offset by the smells of great food), communication issues (there were few), and our expectations were low as a result. BUT we both enjoyed Mumbai and expect to come back to visit some day.

Azharuddin Ismail, who played a young Salim in Slumdog Millionaire at 10 years old, now 25, has had to sell his upscale flat and move back with his family into the slums but is working to change his life again.Read more