Bollywood
What You Hear Is What You Read
I recently came across an organization called PlanetRead that completely captured my heart, and I am so excited about the work they are doing to improve literacy in India. There are 900 million illiterate people in the world, and 1/3 of those people, 300 million, live in India. According to UNICEF, 66% of India’s population is illiterate. I was acutely aware of India’s literacy problem and its implications for the socioeconomic development of the country, however I was still surprised to hear the explanation of Dr. Larry Brilliant, Executive Director for Google.org, in reference to the undeniable urgency of a literate nation. He explained that if you do a multiple logistic regression analysis and you put all of the variables in trying to explain what is the single most important factor in determining whether a child will live or die past the age of 5, it isn’t water or vaccinations, but the literacy of that child’s mother.
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India is a Melody
You just can’t escape it. It’s in the streets, in the stores, in the taxis, in the blood of the people that call India their home. Music pervades every inch of this city, from the pavement to the palaces, and for many, it’s the lifeblood that propels them towards another day.
I came here to explore the impact of Bollywood, the billion-dollar industry and musical export heard the world over. Five years ago, Bombay possessed only a handful of nightclubs, each pulsating with Hindi film songs and Bollywood dance moves, the Bombay Romeos purring lyrics from their favorite hits. I was surprised however to find a contemporary Bombay quite different from the one I had known. Globalization brought to Bombay German cars and Japanese electronics, Italian food and New York styles. It also brought a completely revolutionized music scene that represents a new generation of Indians. In the Bombay of today, there are dozens of nightclubs spread all throughout the city and a new wave of genres that cater to a new class of Indians. With the explosion of new media and nouveau rich Indians traveling the globe came new styles of music reserved exclusively for an upper class society that separates them from the common folk. I’m discovering that amongst other things, music is a major representation of the vast socioeconomic class divide that pervades the city.
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Be The Change

Akanksha Foundation
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Mumbai Meri Jaan
Namaste from India, and welcome to my Fulbright mtvU-blog! For the next 9 months, I will live in Mumbai and use this site to post videos, soundbites, photos, interviews, and updates on my project exploring Bollywood culture and its impacts and influences on underprivileged youth in Mumbai. As part of my project, I aim to coordinate with entertainment professionals at Rohit Roy Productions and the youth of the Akanksha Foundation to develop the theatre and drama program of the foundation and to create a Bollywood performance by the youth. My ultimate goal is to produce a documentary of the children’s journey, which will be screened at a fundraising gala that marks the 20th anniversary of the Akanksha foundation’s efforts.