Behind the Beautiful Forevers by Katherine Boo

Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope In A Mumbai Undercity by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, Katherine Boo is the culmination of four years of reporting from Annawadi, a “makeshift settlement” next to the luxury hotels of the Mumbai Airport in “New India”.  A couple of years in the lives of several “slumdwellers” brings to life their desperation and determination to achieve something better for themselves and their families.  Referred to as an “undercity”, Boo continually contrasts Annawadi with the “overcity” of Mumbai and its economy that has grown by leaps and bounds.

The title of the book brought to my mind something deep and spiritual and possibly something to do with the predominantly Hindu culture of India; however, I was not disappointed but pleasantly surprised when I realized the true significance of the title.  Rising high above Annawadi along Airport Road, billboards advertising tile flooring proclaimed a floor that was “beautiful forever”.  These words repeated several times.

The central story that Boo tells reveals the title’s further significance in that one of the minority Muslim families in Annawadi works hard enough to save a little money to buy this flooring for their hut.  Their pride in their new floor and their ability to afford it sparks a series of jealousies among their neighbors that ultimately pushes the Muslim family into the corrupt Mumbai justice system and the infamous Arthur Road prison.

I respect Boo’s journalism in that she appears to present the people and situations in as unbiased a manner as possible.  All of the people she describes have flaws as well as strengths.  Many of her central characters are not necessarily likeable people.  She does not utilize their situations to tug on our heart strings.  She simply tells their story.

My favorite characters were the grade school and teenage boys that had to eek out a living because their fathers had become alcoholics (a seemingly chronic problem in Annawadi).  They became increasingly daring in their attempts to steal recyclable material from the Airport construction sites.  When a couple of them are murdered during their attempt and their death is covered up by the authorities, two of the boys grow closer:

Sunil and Abdul sat together more often than before, but when they spoke, it was with the curious formality of people who shared the understanding that  much of what was said did not matter, and that much of what mattered could not be said.

Boo summarizes the slumdwellers she encountered during her time in Mumbai in the following:

The slumdwellers I’d already come to know in India were neither mythic nor pathetic.  They were certainly not passive.  Across the country, in communities decidedly short on saviours, they were improvising, often ingeniously, in pursuit of the new economic possibilities of the twenty-first century.

 

“O Little Friend of All the World!”

After reading Rudyard Kipling’s novel, Kim, I’ve come to the conclusion that I think I enjoy his short stories more than his novels.  Aspects of the story certainly are beautiful and I could rank the character of Kimball O’Hara up there with some of my favorites.  However, my lack of knowledge of the historical details of Kim’s timeperiod made for some tedious reading.

Kim is an orphan of British descent who lives alone on the streets of Lahore in India.  He’s taken on a dark complexion so is, therefore, considered a low-caste Indian native.  Like most street orphans, he’s considered lovable by some and a nuisance by others who live in his community.

One afternoon a Buddhist lama finds Kim sitting by a large gun at a museum, referred to by the lama as the Wonder House.  I found this introduction both brilliant and comical as the lama and Kim join “forces” both for Holy aspirations and for political intrigue.

The entire novel is the journey on which Kim embarks with the lama.  The lama is looking for The River of the Arrow in which to cleanse himself of his sins  and Kim becomes his disciple.  However,  Kim’s streetwise abilities pull him into “The Great Game” of spying for the British during their conflict with the Russians over Central Asia, a skill in which he is quite adept.

Kipling depicts India as a picaresque land of many races and religions.  Buddhism, Hinduism, Christianity (both Catholic and Protestant) and Islam all meld together in both conflict and friendship.  Having grown up alone in this land, Kim is given the title “Little Friend of All the World” by a Muslim acquaintence.

In spite of Kiplings seeming fascination with India, the British Empire is never portrayed as “the bad guy” and even on a few occasions, Kipling slips in his own imperialistic point of view.  This has given the novel a certain amount of controversy in the century-plus since it was written.  In spite of this “political incorrectness”, it still captures the mystery and beauty of both India and Kim.

As I mentioned, I was unfamiliar with much of the historical details described in the novel.  If I had a considerable amount of time, perhaps I could have researched all of the names and places and conflicts that were dropped in just the normal everyday conversation of Kim and the friends and enemies he meets along his journey.  I’m not sure when I would have the time and even if I did, I would end up having to dedicate an entire blog to this novel – which doesn’t sound very appealing.

However, I do have on my list to read in the near future a book called Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity by Katherine Boo.  Maybe this book will give me some factual understanding of the history of India as well as shed some light on modern elements of this country.