1997, the United States.
Abraham George, who just turned 49 this year.
When he was young, he went to study in the United States alone from his home in India.
In the United States, he received a doctorate, founded his own company, obtained American citizenship, married a wife and had children, lived a rich life...
Right one: Abraham George
can be at this age of "fate", George suddenly felt a huge force urging him...
Finally, he made a decision that surprised everyone around him: Go back to India...
We all know that India has worse conditions than the United States. It's not a little bit, besides, George is 49 years old, can he still adapt when he returns to China?
But George can't wait...
He sold the company, mortgaged his single-family villa in the United States, and returned to poor and backward India with his wife and children.
After returning, the first big thing he did was to open a special school-Shanti Bawang. Means: House of Peace.
For Indians, this school is too strange.
In everyone’s perception, the better the school, the higher the tuition and the higher the threshold. A good school can only be afforded by the upper-class people, and sometimes it may not even be possible for the money to go.
and Xiangtibawang claimed that it would not charge tuition fees, and even paid for the children’s clothing, food, housing and transportation. When the children are admitted to the university, they also help pay for the tuition.
Other schools choose students, and they are always more willing to choose students from good families. But this school only accepts children from low caste and poor families...
z3 The arts and crafts are endless. Teachers come from all over the world. At a young age, children can see the colorful and diversity of the world...
When Shanti Bawang is a free school that only accepts "untouchables", in India When Bangalore opened with great momentum, people thought it was crazy! This must be a scam.
There is even a horrible rumor in the shop: Don’t send your children to Chantibawang. They will remove their eyes and kidneys and sell them to the United States...
This four-episode documentary "Destiny" "Daughter" , produced by Netflix, has been online since 2017. But there are too few people who have seen it. Douban scored 9.4 points with only a thousand people, and the IMDb score is as high as 8.5.
This is a great documentary, and its shooting and production time is more than 7 years. The amount of material and the amount of information are beyond imagination. Almost every minute, you will be moved by it, watching it and wanting to cheer for it.
Its angle of view locks on 5 girls of different ages in Chantibawang, and the camera closely follows their growth process. From entering Shanti Bawang, to graduation, entering university, and employment. As you can see, they have gone from being ignorant girls to truly becoming powerful men who can control their own destiny and change the destiny of their family.
The tone of the whole film is sad. There are too many bitterness in the life of the bottom people in India. Fate is helpless and cruel, and people are struggling to survive...
but it is also bright, because you will see with your own eyes a group of children and a group of young people who fight against fate and really change it...
Some netizens commented: starts from education, but it shows something far more important than education. Each girl who graduated from this school will become a torch to light up the destiny of thousands of women, using such stubborn and idealistic beliefs to challenge the deep-rooted caste and tradition. The awakening of the Indian people may still take time, but at least at a certain point, some people have begun to realize that fate is not a personal choice, but that I control it bravely and freely.
On the surface, Shanti Bhawan is just a school. This kind of poverty alleviation program is not only in India, but there are too many programs in the world, and it is nothing unusual.
But in fact, the significance of Shanti Bawang is much more than that.
George's original intention was not to educate and cultivate talents. It is to change the fate of more people and reduce poverty. Education is the most efficient means to achieve this goal. In the film
, George repeatedly emphasized that: If the children leave Chanti Bawang and only care about themselves, they only have luxury cars and big houses in their hearts, then my education has failed. They must first improve the quality of life of their families, and then help more groups to double this kindness. Shanti Bawang helped a child, and this child can help ten people. This is the meaning of Shanti Bawang's existence.
George's method is indeed effective. The documentary filmed the growth trajectory of 5 girls in Shanti Bawang.
They all come from remote villages and low-caste families. During their growth, poverty, prejudice, and gender oppression were always accompanied by their growth...
Manjula and his mother, grandparents and grandparents depended on each other. A family of four squeezed into a ruined house less than four square meters.
Manjula’s mother married and had children at the age of 15, but her husband was too unreliable. Despite all the opposition, she divorced and brought her children to Bangalore and lived alone. Because he is illiterate, he can only do physical work to make money to support his family.
mother often said to Manjula: I had a hard time in the first half of my life, you must not be like me, you have to get ahead.
When Shilpa was born, his father was furious because he was a girl. The whole family didn't like her. Grandma even secretly told her mother that it would be nice if it were a boy.
In the village where she lives, people think it is unlucky to have a daughter. When Shilpa was 13 years old, her grandmother told her: You should marry my son. This son, Shilpa’s uncle...
Korschka’s father died when he was young. The body was soaking in a pond when it was found. Everyone in the village knows that he was beaten to death because he married a low-caste woman...
. His mother is regarded as a "untouchable" and cannot find a decent job at all, so he can only be found in the quarry. Do the dirtiest and most tiring work. But even if you work hard, the salary is still difficult to make ends meet...
These girls are different in age, family, and interest, and even the various sufferings they have suffered are also different. If there is no Xiangti Bawang, you can imagine their original destiny...
, at a young age, they were married to a single in the village, or even their uncle. Then the whole family continued to struggle in the painful quagmire, wanting to get rid of the difficulties, but also powerless...
time slowly passes. With the lens, you can see them grow up, adult, receive advanced education and establish They have great values and have their own unwavering ideals. This process of
must be full of pain we can hardly imagine. In Shanti Bawang, they receive the most advanced, diverse and open education. They are taught to be good people, to obey their inner world, to be free, confident, and respected...
can take a holiday every year. They return to their families and return to that remote and backward village. What they face Yes, it’s the devastating poverty, the endless ridicule and criticism because of prejudice...
The overwhelming difference between the two worlds brings about the pain and scars of the division, we can’t see it;
z How to pin all our hopes on a child and crawl forward, we can’t see it either;
there are so many unbearable and sad shots that we can’t take, and we can’t even see...
but you will see , The wishes they made when they were children are not just the frivolous dreams they had when they were young, every word, every determination, they actually realized...
Shilpa, who loved to write since childhood, was 13 years old. When I dreamed of becoming a reporter.
After entering the university, she chose journalism. No matter where she went, she had to bring her laptop with her, often crackling a few lines on the keyboard, and even started to write the story of Chantibawang.
family slowly learned to respect her, and no one mentioned it again, asking her to marry her uncle...
The 16-year-old Manjula once said firmly to the camera: I will study hard, I want to make money and raise my mother, I want to let her Everyone saw that her choice was correct. After graduating from
, she became an excellent nurse, helping patients to measure their heart rate, blood pressure, and providing professional dietary advice in the medical care center. She was still firm, and she was more calm.
She hopes that people can recognize her because of her nursing skills, instead of judging her by caste and gender. The story of
Korschka is the most exciting. When
11, she learned that there was a lawyer who helped the untouchables win the lawsuit and get back huge rewards and compensation. She found that the law can help more people, so she made up her mind to become a lawyer. After graduating from Shanti Bawang, she was admitted to law school.
In college, the 20-year-old Korschka completed the first project, which was to return to the remote hometown, to the quarry full of exploitation and discrimination. She acted boldly and astutely, and soon acted as a representative of the villagers in litigating all illegal acts in the quarry.
In his gestures, he looked like a capable leader, who could not see that it was the little girl who leaned in the corner and complained bitterly and stubbornly...
This documentary only records a small part of the lives of five girls, but you will see that these five people alone are enough to become a spark and light up the lives of more people.
If only "education changes destiny" to explain everything that happened in Shanti Bawang, it is too shallow and superficial.
For India, Shanti Bhawan is a challenge to the darkest and most corrupted side of society;
For feminism, the first half of the life of the five girls is proof of breaking free from bondage and living out of the most lively self; For all mankind, this is more like a miracle. It is a miracle that one person saves a small group of people, and then this small group of people changes the fate of more people...
We all know that there are many places in this world that are out of sunlight. Those dark corners, poverty, pain, ugliness, and sinful sins...
I often think that this is because of the dark side of human nature, there are too many gray areas in the world, and there are restrictions in society that are difficult for ordinary people to touch...
And with the power of one of us, a certain group of people, there is nothing we can do, and there is no way to change anything.
But after reading the story of Shanti Bawang, you will find that someone did it. Someone is using their most meagre power to emit a thrilling light to illuminate those corners where the sun cannot go. There is a girl in the film
. She wrote a little poem when she was a teenager. At first glance, you might think she is a secondary disease.
But after reading the whole story of Shanti Bawang, you will believe that this is not the arrogant ideal of adolescence, but the goal she will fight for her life: One day, I will let the world see, it is I will Bullets shot into the sky, opening the door to hope and salvation...
