Coke and Children
There is some sort of joy from a bottle of Coke. Maybe it’s the unique taste it has, the tang, the sourness and the sweetness somehow it all blends forming a wonderfully delightful concoction. It could also be the fizz, the sizzle you hear when you open the can. I just watched the movie “Slum dog Millionaire” and in a scene it depicts a stranger who is instantly accepted by a group of children after giving them a bottle of coke. Then and there, I realized what a rare treat it was for them. All my life I have been fortunate enough to be able to buy a bottle of coke any time I wanted. And for these children, exposed to the harsh realities of life at such a young age, coke was a way to escape, a getaway; it was a momentary enjoyment before being shoved with the reality again. The scene also depicts how innocent children are, how, no matter how fast their situation forces them to mature, they are still very naïve. This is shown by the speed at which they trust someone, just with a bottle of coke. I think I will never look at Coke in the same way again, I think I will look at Coke as a privilege now.

Unique Business Opportunities
A while ago I talked to one of my friend’s dad, somehow from talking about school it ended up being a discussion of how proud he was of his mom. His admiration was merely due to the fact that his mother, no matter where they were, always managed to find a job or start a business. Whilst laughing he told me of how his mom, used a precious family jewel as a guarantee to pay back a debt. Watching the movie “Slum dog Millionaire” has somehow reminded me of this event. How Jamal, the main character, manages to find business opportunities everywhere he went, just to be able to get food and water, just to be able to survive in the movie “Slum dog Millionaire” has somehow reminded me of this event. How Jamal, the main character, manages to find business opportunities everywhere he went, just to be able to get food and water, just to be able to survive. At first it may be strange, to see how these so called “Slum dogs” manage to survive in a world where they are often considered as negligible, where they are often looked down upon and thought to have no chance to survive. Why do we put such judgment on them? Many would say, “Oh because they are not educated,” In response to that I would say that they are in every way educated, not from school, but from the streets, they are the living proof of being street wise. If being educated was a stamp which only the school could give, children such as Jamal, people such as Jamal would not be living; there would not be any street wise. They may not be able to recite all the planets in the solar system or anything in that sort, but they are able to go with the flow of the world. In the movie, Jamal becomes a souvenir seller when he was hitch hiking a train, an inaccurate tour guide in Taj Mahal, a restaurant waiter and finally a chai wallah. I personally, think that people who are street wise are the people who are most likely to survive, as they are the most flexible of all people. Questions which we find in school are questions which have been solved for many years, by many people. But questions that are faced to us by life are questions with no answer key, questions which have not been attempted before. It is unique to me, it is unique to you it is unique to us. That is why I think, we should never underestimate a slum dog.

Childhood Stories
In the movie, “Slum dog Millionaire” the winning question asks Jamal “Who is the third member of the Three Musketeers?” Now he may not be able to answer the question, although he still got it right. In the movie, he ended up guessing the answer. But he still remembered the other two musketeers, an information which he gathered in his youth. It fascinated me, how a story told in one’s childhood could be imprinted in the memory of the child for so long, perhaps his/ her entire life. It reminded me of a talk with one of the Professors of a college in America, I called him Moko, and he told me of a research he conducted on 20 children. While they were in kindergarten they were always told the story of a deer who would steal cucumbers from the neighboring farm. In the story the deer is celebrated as a hero, as well as being regarded as one of the most intelligent creatures, similar to robin hood. After the children grew up, many of them believed that stealing was “OK”, and some even confessed to committing the act. Watching this movie, I just remembered of this experience, and how a childhood story can be so influential to someone's life.