Boo

25-50

The text seems quite apocalyptic and like an urban supernatural narrative.  There is this evil force, which is the government, and many people find it difficult to survive under it.  Apparently the government is corrupt.  It is believed that this is also translated in Boo’s tone or her ability to make the reader empathize with the oppressed and see through their eyes.  For instance, there are many fences around dumping grounds or construction sites that give off an imposing and monstrous air.  Enclosing a construction site might just be for the safety of others and the supplies that can be stolen.  Not necessarily to keep people away from eating garbage.  Nonetheless, since there is such a clear divide in this society, the fences seem exaggerated and to keep hungry people away for the sake of being pretentious.  Perhaps because I feel exhausted by just reading about Sunil’s scavenging.  In addition to, it appears as if there are different levels of poverty in Boo’s depiction of New Delhi.  Sunil came from and orphanage and practically lives on the street like prey.  On the other hand, Asha is extremely financially unstable and living in quite a minute home.  Making her look better off than he is.

Up to 100

It is quite obvious that an overriding theme in this text is oppression.  The government only allows women to vote in certain elections to maintain the system or design of who is oppressed.  This happens in many countries and on occasion people talk about the negative aspects of history that still exist in contemporary society in some shape or form.  It might be true, but there are opportunities to defy these notions and bitter resentments that some people fertilize in their mind.  I am simply relating this text to certain fabrications that people declare as unfortunate realities of today.  However, in certain places dictatorship still prevails and people actually are belittled.  

When comic relief is used, ‘enough oil in his hair to fry garlic’ (51) it makes me feel quite uneasy that I am captivated by or I enjoy reading this book that depicts such a life of melancholia.  Well it does not seem that apocalyptic anymore (besides Fatima setting herself on fire and the amount of young people who die because of illnesses).  In fact, what stimulates the people or the reasoning behind what they do actually sounds nostalgic. In the fifties women weren’t expected to work, except teach or be a secretary.  This seems to be the case here, with the added pressure of arranged marriages.  Also, many might frown upon androgyny in the eunuch’s case.  Frankly, I find it quite interesting that they are listening to Christina Aguilera, working on Photoshop, watching Tom & Jerry, or rehearsing Visa commercials.  This access to media is a dose of contemporary pop culture.  Due to this, Boo dissolves certain assumptions one might have of people who live in a hut that is on top of a sewage lake.

Up to 125

Boo includes these horrific accounts of death, such as families pushing widows to death to rid of expenses that the husband was responsible for before his death; as a mean to ensue the overt point that Delhi is financially stricken and people do tragic and unthinkable things for the sake of money.  Not having money kills people’s innocence and conscience and probably part of their ideal in order to survive.  Which is quite ironic.  Choosing to kill in order to live and having an innumerable amount of children probably to keep the family’s nonexistent heritage alive or as a body of hope to gain financial success is quite counterproductive.  Especially when families cannot afford to heal children. 

Once again, this depiction of Delhi can be matched with the reality of living in an urban ghetto in the Western Hemisphere.  The crimes in the projects are often about money in relation to another object maybe.  Delhi seems very morbid, but the unfortunate events in the projects appear repetitively.  Both areas are haunting.  In Behind The Beautiful Forever’s, the government maintains a certain division of classes, genders and so on.  Oppression basically, almost as if the government is letting the Annawadi people ‘kill’ themselves. Rumors of institutions allowing the oppressed to rid themselves in a secluded or rural areas sometimes echoes after horrible news make headlines.  If something terrible repeats itself then why isn’t anything being done about it? Many tourist destinations have rotten sides to the glitz and glamourized brand of a country.   I will also add, that some police actually have beaten young men to death, which sort of goes against authorities leaving criminals to their own devices – not that any form of crime is actually permitted.

Up to 175

Frankly, it is pleasing that recognizable people such as Saddam Hussein and Gandhi were brought up.  It simply puts Delhi being discussed in a timeframe or allows one to identify or be aware of this place from a global perspective.  After all, Delhi is like a frozen timeline.  Many people have really colonial jobs such as farming and others parts are rundown with an urban quality unlike historical ruins.  There are many layers to the identity of identity of Delhi because of this coexistence or disjunction of eras.  Delhi is indeed a juxtaposition and it might be less tragic if it remained more natural like the country side, even though the reality of not modernizing is that there will be thoughts of, this place could have been special.  In my perspective, living off the land so to speak is better than destroying the land by polluting it, physically, socially, economically and politically. 

            Statements like ‘the government doesn’t pay us enough money to raise our children’, ‘nowadays, we’d do almost anything for money’ and ‘you think you want to be a cop, but you don’t, because it kills you’ all confirm my previous analysis and claims of the effects of Delhi.  Those who do not thrive with or under the government’s rule are left to their own devices and ran over, people act like wild predators and prey for the sake of money, disregarding all sense of self and emotion, they become numb and soulless.