Millionaire dentist Seema Sharma lives in London with her cardiologist husband Sanjay and their two daughters. With a string of successful dental practices to her name, Seema is worth in the region of five million pounds. Although Seema speaks basic Hindi, her only knowledge of India comes from Bollywood films and five-star holidays.
She leaves behind her British lifestyle and flies to Mumbai, the financial capital of India. Mumbai has a shocking disparity between wealth and poverty: over half of its 13 million residents live in slums or on the streets. Seema is staying in Dharavi, one of the largest slums in India, where over a million people live crammed into less than one square mile.
During her stay Seema volunteers with a number of organisations in the hope of finding worthy causes and individuals to support. She meets inspiring people who've come up with ingenious solutions to help India's poorest citizens, including a mobile school to educate homeless children, a charity that persuades the wealthy to donate toys to underprivileged children, and a group reaching out to a community of rag pickers struggling to provide their families with basics such as water and proper sanitation.
Trying to decide how to give away her money in a responsible and effective way, Seema is confronted by insurmountable dilemmas. On the final day of her stay, and with a new understanding of what it means to be Indian, Seema reveals her identity to the people she has chosen, surprising them with gifts worth tens of thousands of pounds.
No comments:
Post a Comment