ABOUT RUBINA ALI AND AZHARUDHEEN ISMAIL – THEIR PLIGHT

Azharudheen Ismail seems to beseech us- please don’t forget me!
Rubina Ali seems to weep loudly and implores us with folded palms- please don’t forget me!

Hundreds and hundreds, thousands and thousands of Azharudheen Ismails’ and Rubina Alis’ cries explode in our ears daily to extend a helping hand to wriggle out of a quagmire of poverty, malnutrition and homelessness.
We tend to ignore all their cries for help.

How many among us know who this Rubina Ali is. How many among us know who this Azharudheen Ismail is.
How many of us recall the Oscar Award Winner ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ which brought before the world the pathetic life of slum-dwellers?

Azharudheen Ismail and Rubina Ali were two main child actors of ‘SlumDog Millionaire’ which brought fame, glory and alongside the murkier side of an India about which many a people across the world is unaware of.

Bandra(E) is known to an average Mumbaikar. He/she is also aware of the shanties along the railway lines of Bandra. Last week Mumbai civic authorities demolished a part of about 30 shanties defying the protests and helpless cries of the slum-dwellers. One among the demolished slums was that of Azharudheen Ismail, the child hero of ‘Slumdog Millionaire’. The news about the demolishing of Azharudheen’s- the little celebrity- couldn’t even create much of a flutter among us.

The case was similar when the news about the ramshackling of another part of shanties was flashed across the TV screens and through Print Media on 20-5-2009. In the second episode of the serial ‘demolishings’, Brihu Mumbai Municipal Authorities created history of sorts by demolishing among other slums, the slum of Rubina Ali, the main female actor of the film ‘Slumdog Millionaire’. While the demolishing process was going on , the child was in the market to purchase something, her second mother was at the spot to make a hue and cry, the authorities cared two hoots for her protestations and the makeshift area disappeared within seconds.

Not much hullabaloo. Not much hue and cry. Business as usual in the city. Politicians are pretty hectic in their activities. Post-election scenario is turning out to be transparent day by day. The victorious ones upbeat. Those who remained with great expectations and lost in the race mulling their next course of action still licking their wounds simultaneously don’t much bother about Azharudheen Ismail and Rubina Ali. The elections are over for the time being. And hence the shedding of crocodile tears also have to take some leisure moments.

The producers of the Oscar winner have also not much to say about the little child actors of the film who were instrumental in piling up huge collection for them. The trend of things happening in our nation.

Dehumanization of the society is not common to India, but to the World as a whole and the reversal of the process is the dream of an average peace-loving world citizen.