Slumdog Millionaire

The book starts with a question, “In the biggest quiz program on Indian television, Jamal Malik is one question away from winning 20 million rupees. How did he do it?” Without any hesitation, I chose the answer D— it is his destiny! In the extraordinary life of Jamal, he went through a great number of ups and downs and myriads of adversities. Nonetheless, despite the miserable experiences, he undoubtedly received something significant simultaneously.

From the perspective of an outsider, Jamal’s life is absolutely dramatic and amazing. It must be difficult for Jamal to accept the brutal reality and keep being optimistic for the unpredictable future. Regardless of the deplorable predicament of the slum where he lived, Jamal never dwelled on those disappointing events but only recalled the little but definite bliss in his childhood. Well goes the saying, “The greater part of our happiness or misery depends on our disposition and not on our circumstances.” After I flipped through the pages and realized Jamal’s background, I started to make sense of this maxim. The most admirable part of Jamal’s personality is that he has a forward-looking attitude and colossal bravery—which are indispensable for him to overcome all the challenges popping up during his lifetime.

What impresses me the most is the part in which those militant Hindus made an assault against the innocent Muslims, which therefore resulted in the grievous death of Jamal’s mother. It cannot be too adequate to view this accident as the turning point of Jamal’s destinies. If this were not the case, his fate would be as different as chalk from cheese. It is the loss of his mom and hometown that forced him to leave his comfort zone and take the plunge to adventure the unfamiliar world.

Speaking of religion, it has long been a controversial issue and the believers worshipping in all sorts of canons never seem to have had a common consensus yet. In my opinion, religion should always provide people with the vigor to sustain their faith so that they would never surrender to those afflictions which are inevitable and formidable. For the most part, religions definitely give the entire society positive momentum; nevertheless, some worshippers put a foot wrong during their comprehension of the doctrines. As a result, it brought about those tragic religion-related conflicts in human history, which were such ironies. Adherents of different theologies have dissimilar outlooks, and this is really common. Unfortunately, some people are always too aggressive and self-centered to tolerate the fact that there are actually other people who don’t believe in the same god as they do. Generally speaking, almost all religions were created with good intentions initially; however, disappointingly, the incorrect concept led to a completely wrong result. I wonder whether there will be a world without any unreasonable opposition in the near future.

“You said you wanted to see the real India? Well, here it is!” Jamal shouted up at the American couple after being beaten harshly and therefore got a hundred-dollar bill of compassion. Upon reading this part, the disparity between the rich and the poor came into my mind. To me, this phenomenon is likely to be a vicious spiral which would get more and more serious and might last for good. As the proverb goes,” Money begets money.” That’s the reason why the gap between the rich and the poor would be more and more arduous to break. However, not everything can be bought with money. And it must be the reason why the small country in Himalayas, Bhutan, was referred to as the happiest country in the world. The value of one’s happiness can never be estimated by his wealth but by his satisfaction with the current condition. A contented mind is a perpetual feast and this theory really proves the fact that it is this philosophy which makes those Bhutanese people always look on the bright side of life.

This book displays not only a heart-inspiring story but also the problems we tend to neglect and escape. It absolutely changes my outlook of life and lets me examine myself constantly. To sum up, it is worth reading and discussing and it would give people a life-long influence.