When I'm Engaged In A Story My

People Naturally Long For A Bit Of The Wealth That Is Whorling All Around Them, And If The Work And Education Available To Them Won't Get Them Closer To The Comforts That They See Others Enjoying, The Temptation To Take Shortcuts Can Be Fierce.

Everyone In Annawadi Talks Like This: 'oh, I Will Make My Child A Doctor, A Lawyer, And He Will Make Us Rich'. It's Vanity, Nothing More. Your Little Boat Goes West And You Congratulate Yourself, 'what A Navigator I Am!' And Then The Wind Blows You East.

I Think It's This Congenital Problem With Journalism That We Oversell The Difference We Make. We Make Small Differences.

But If Writing About People Who Are Not Yourself Is Illegitimate, Then The Only Legitimate Work Is Autobiography; And As A Reader And A Citizen, I Don’t Want To Live In That World.

I Was Spending A Lot Of Time In Mumbai After I Met My Husband, Who Is Indian, And While Parts Of The City Were Prospering Like Crazy, I Couldn't Quite Make Out How The New Wealth Had Changed The Prospects Of The Majority Of City Residents Who Lived In Slums. So After A Few Years I Stopped Wondering And Started Reporting.