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I remember watching “Slumdog Millionaire” and trying to take in the story about young children being kidnapped by mobs/shady underground people, mutilated, then cast out onto the streets to beg for money, not for themselves, but for the greedy, corrupted mob/shady person(s) who have no morals.

I felt extremely sad for the children and I couldn’t understand how people in the world could be so cruel. But because I was simply watching a movie, I couldn’t fully wrap my head around the story and comprehend how real, immediate and problematic the children’s situation was. In the end, it was simply moving pictures on a 14’’ laptop screen depicting scenes written by a movie production company. It didn’t immediately affect me, it seemed too distant to be real, it quickly slipped from my mind… until several days ago.

I was walking along the overpass towards the subway station when I saw it with my own eyes, 5 feet in front of me. It was a young boy. I wasn’t sure exactly what happened to him, but he was lying face down on the ground, his arms by his side, a small basket for coins next to him and he didn’t move at all. It looked as if he was dead, or as if he was lying there waiting for death to take him from his misery. It was horrible sight. I felt like I should have helped him, but I didn’t know how. All I could do was stare at his pitiful form while sadness and revulsion crept through my entire being.

Seeing that boy put things into perspective, it finally hit me that these horrible things happen all the time and that they occur closer to me than I realized. Where do people get the notion that it’s okay to take another human being, mutilate them, and then force them into the streets to beg for money? It’s sickening.

Sometimes I wish I could just live in my own little bubble of happiness and obliviation. But I know that’s not right and the world is so much more than just me. The world is not perfect just as I am not perfect. And just like how I try to improve myself, I should do my part to help improve the world.

But what can I do?