Wandering About in Slumdog Land | Part 8: Nawabi Lucknow
Danny Boyle’s, eight Academy Awards winning yet controversial film Slumdog Millionaire, set and filmed in India, gave the country another name derivative – the Slumdog Land. The name tagging apart, the film also carried a deeper symbolism for India, a land of many contradictions.
As India surges forward in taking big strides of development, there are millions of slumdogs, aspiring to become millionaires all over the country in their own entrepreneurial ways. The making of new India thus needs a thoughtful blend of big ticket macro development as well as the inclusive growth of micro-small-mid sized enterprises for a sustainable growth trajectory.
Nawabi Lucknow, 22nd Feb 2009: Sunday passed in ‘Nawabi’ style with nothing much to do. I sat at the computer for a while to complete a few pending reports and then spent the rest of the morning and afternoon, juggling with the infinite channels of the Tata Sky box.
That evening, I went out for a stroll. This part of the city reminded me of days spent in places like Bokaro, Jamshedpur and Sambalpur. Life moved at a very leisurely pace, no traffic tensions, one had the luxury of parking the car anywhere one felt like! The weather was cool, people were enjoying their Sunday evening out…visiting shops and eating gol-guppas and ice cream at the roadside stalls.
I enjoyed walking around and finally going back to Bhaskar’s rather bland vegetarian dinner. At dinner, I was introduced to Graham, the boss of MicroSave. Graham is British, with a Bangladeshi wife. He speaks fluent Bangla and when he tries Hindi, it sounds funny because he uses mostly Bangla words and tries to impart a Hindi touch, much in the manner of older generation Bengalis speaking Hindi with taxi drivers.
The Slumdog’s Day of Glory, 23rd – 24th Feb: Monday and Tuesday passed off in the MicroSave office, meeting people, preparing reports and proposals and submitting bills. On 24th evening, I decided to visit the local Ameenabad market to do some shopping. Ameenabad is in the old quarters of the city of Lucknow, steeped in history. One has no option but to walk into the depths of this market due to the congestion. The rows upon rows of stalls stocked with the famous Lucknow ‘Chikan’ i and other handloom stuff leaves one spellbound! I managed to find my way into two of the shops that seemed promising from the outside.
The variety and designs overwhelmed me and I ended up picking up much more than what I had intended to. On the way back, I visited a Chinese restaurant near the guest house that I had earmarked during Sunday’s stroll. Inside, I ordered ‘mixed chow-mein’ and ginger chicken. As soon as the stuff was served, I realized that I would not be able to finish more that a third of the food. The remaining two thirds, I carried back to the guest house for breakfast the next morning.
On Monday morning came the news of ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ winning eight Oscars. Also, “Smile Pinky” the short documentary won the Oscar. The slumdogs and Pinky, whose village is not far from Lucknow, savored their moments of glory under the Hollywood spotlight. What a day for India! There are many who are against exposing the harsher realities of Indian life to the Western world. I beg to differ, because to me what comes out most positively is the indomitable Indian spirit, its optimism in spite of all odds and the ingenuity, creativity and resilience of the people at all levels. It is the same spirit that fuels Rupaal Singh and his rag-tag group working out of the Ghaziabad hole-in-the wall to aspire to be a major microfinance innovator. It is the same spirit that motivates the school children of NOIDA to ‘flirt with genes’ from the confines of a 2ftX2ft, dusty, humid internet café cubicle. 
To be continued …
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i Chikan: Traditional embroidery style from Lucknow, India. Also denotes dresses made with such embroidered material (usually cotton)
