If you consider "slumdog" an offensive term and living in slums a peculiarly Indian phenomenon, think again.
If you consider "slumdog" an offensive term and living in slums a peculiarly Indian phenomenon, think again.
Mark and Cathy Delaney, a Brisbane (Australia) couple, have forsaken the comfortable lifestyle of the land of their birth, preferring, instead, the "deeply enriching" life in a Delhi neighbourhood called Janata Mazdoor Colony.
The Delaneys have been sharing their lives with locals in Delhi slums for the past 13 years, raising their sons (12) and Oscar (7), both of who were born in India, in a bedroom-sized home, with no running water, television, refrigerator or washing machine.
Cathy, who has a masters' degree in pure mathematics says of their decision: "It baffles us that more people in Australia who say they are sick of their lives don't do something like we have.
"The longer we have stayed here the more we can see the positive effect it has had on us as a people. I feel much freer of money and possessions these things don't define my life."
Forty-two year old lawyer Mark Delaney, who works part-time for a Delhi medical organisation, says more than a decade in Delhi's squatter settlements has been a "radical detox" from consumer society.
"For the first couple of years I thought, "We'll do this for a while, get a deposit and build a house', and so on, but I've let go of all of it now," he said.
The family sleep on two mattresses, which double as a 'lounge' during the day, eat their meals sitting on the floor and share an Indian-style toilet in a small bathroom.
Strongly motivated by their faith, they believe that life is more about caring for others than comfort
and success.
"Our main purpose is simply to experience what life is like here, to live with and learn from the poor and contribute something positive to peoples' lives," Mark says.
About 60,000 people live in the illegal, congested shanty town on the eastern outskirts of Delhi. The settlement has 'graduated' from a kucha to a pucca one, but drains still run along the narrow alleyways and empty into a canal nearby.
According to Matt Wade, New Delhi correspondent of the Sydney Morning Herald: "witnessing (the vulnerability and powerlessness) of the kind portrayed in the film, has nurtured a strong sense of social justice in the boys".
Mark is surprised by the "enormous benefit" the boys Oscar is in year 2 in a local school and Tom has switched to home schooling have gained from the experience.
Asked if they would prefer to move back to Australia later this year or continue living in their present state, both boys said they would like to stay on.
"I used to think that, with the kids, we would just endure living here for a while and then go," said Mark.
"But now I'm thinking this is a good thing for them and I want to stay not for my sake, but for the sake of my kids."
According to Wade, "there is a hot debate in the household about how simply they should live".
"Cathy is a bit harder line than me," Mark says. "Sometimes she says, 'Let's move down a bit' but I'm usually a bit resistant. Most people think we are pretty stupid already."
Finding out, some time back, how much money their neighbours subsist on, the Delaneys cut their monthly budget from Rs 10,000 to Rs 5,000 for a month.
"First we ran out of cornflakes and then we ran out of jam. Our diet got much simpler," says Cathy.
"It was a hard experience but a really good one. It gave us so much more respect for the people who live here."
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(Source: The Sydney Morning Herald)
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