Behind the Beautiful Forevers

“Each evening, they returned down the slum road with gunnysacks of garbage on their backs, like a procession of broken-toothed, profit-minded Santas.” 

This quote describes the waste-pickers who scavenge through Mumbai’s garbage searching for anything of value. In describing them as “profit-minded Santas,” the passage illustrates how they pick waste for money, for survival, and how their profits support their families.

“Annawadians now spoke of better lives casually, as if fortune were a cousin arriving on Sunday, as if the future would look nothing like the past.” 

As India experiences increasing economic development, the country’s citizens trade acquiescence to castes or other expectations for hope in reinvention. As this quote indicates, that same yearning for a better life also exists among the Annawadians, despite their limited opportunities for improvement.

“It seemed to him that in Annawadi, fortunes derived not just from what people did, or how well they did it, but also from the accidents and catastrophes they dodged. A decent life was the train that hadn’t hit you, the slumlord you hadn’t offended, the malaria you hadn’t caught.” 

Abdul ponders the capricious nature of fortune in the slums. Luck and circumstance play as much a role in a person’s fate as hard work and competence, and the simple possibility of a “decent” life often comes down to chance.

“In the West, and among some in the Indian elite, this word, corruption, had purely negative connotations; it was seen as blocking India’s modern, global ambitions. But for the poor of a country where corruption thieved a great deal of opportunity, corruption was one of the genuine opportunities that remained.” 

Corruption is a recurring theme in the text, which examines how all levels of Annawadian society, from the courts to the neighborhood square, are governed by greed and depravity. Powerless to combat this reality, many choose to work within the system, viewing corruption as a path toward money, power, and status.

“She didn’t cry for the fate of her husband, son, and daughter, or for the great web of corruption she was now forced to navigate, or for a system in which the most wretched tried to punish the slightly less wretched by turning to a justice system so malign it sank them all. She cried for the manageable thing—the loss of that beautiful quilt, a parting gift to a woman who had used her own body as a weapon against her neighbors.” 

Though Fatima’s actions bring the Husains great hardship, Zehrunisa still washes Fatima’s corpse and covers the body with the family’s best quilt. She breaks down over this quilt rather than the corrupt justice system because the courts are beyond her control. The quilt is trivial, but it’s personal, one of the few things Zehrunisa actually owns and treasures, and now even this precious thing has been taken from her.

“Still, from what he had observed in Annawadi, the fact that a boy knew about the gods didn’t mean the gods would look after the boy.” 

Abdul again ponders the role of fortune, particularly in a road boy’s life. The passage also foreshadows how higher powers, such as the police and the courts, disregard the boys’ lives, concealing their causes of death, refusing to investigate their murders, charging them on falsified charges, and so on. No one is looking out for these children, which is why they turn to thieving and scavenging, to look out for themselves.

“But something he’d come to realize on the roof, leaning out, thinking about what would happen if he leaned too far, was that a boy’s life could still matter to himself.” 

This is a moment of epiphany for Sunil. He recognizes that he lives a bad life, the kind in which young boys are killed yet nobody blinks an eye. Despite the outside world’s indifference, Sunil still values his life. He believes in his own worth, and he wants more for himself. This explains why he buys small treats for himself, such as the movie ticket and the earring, and foreshadows his decision to stop stealing and return to scavenging, to attain that better life through honest means.

“In America and Europe, it was said, people know what is going to happen when they turn on the water tap or flick the light switch. In India, a land of few safe assumptions, chronic uncertainty was said to have helped produce a nation of quick-witted, creative problem-solvers.”

Once again, the text addresses the capriciousness of life in India, particularly Annawadi. When so much of your life is determined by chance, it is difficult to plan or assume anything. In the case of the Annawadians, they have developed a quick and creative adaptability that enables them to survive by whatever means are necessary. The way Asha works the corrupt system to her own advantage is one example of this.