India, Slumdog, and Prejudice

Slumdog Millionaire the movie swept the recent 2009 Oscars, but to get a more realistic view of life in India's infamous slums, try the novel Shantaram (which means "man of God's peace") by Gregory David Roberts, available at many public libraries in both print and CD-audio formats. This remarkable debut novel by the Australian author who actually lived in one of Bombay's slums is an engrossing read; the writing is honest, vividly descriptive, moving, and at times poetic. To know more about the author's background and philosophy, visit Shantaram.com. On this Website Roberts also conducted a thought-provoking Q&A on the terror attack on Mumbai in November 2008.

Another Website that's definitely worth a visit is Living-Library.org which has the following description on its homepage:

What is the Living Library?

The Living Library is an innovative project designed to promote dialogue, reduce prejudices and thereby encourage integration. The main characteristics of the project are to be found in its simplicity and positive approach. In it’s initial form the Living Library is a mobile library set up as a space for dialogue and interaction. Visitors to the Living Library are given the opportunity to speak informally with “people on loan”; this latter group being extremely varied in age, sex and cultural background. The Living Library enables groups to break stereotypes by challenging the most common prejudices in a positive and humorous manner. It is a concrete, easily transferable and affordable way of promoting tolerance and understanding.It is a “keep it simple”, “no-nonsense” contribution to social cohesion in multicultural societies.