‘Reality will hit hard’: This Microsoft employee's journey from Mumbai slums to an apartment is going viral

A view from a Netflix seriesPremium
A view from a Netflix series
2 min read . Updated: 28 Jan 2022, 05:51 PM IST Livemint

The woman says that asking the right questions to people in power and holding them accountable is something we owe to our country

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From skipping lunches for buying herself a new computer to now working in one of the world's leading tech companies, the journey of Shaheena Attarwala is more than just inspiring. 

It is the story of millions of people in our country and the inequity they have to fight to make a place for themselves at the table. This is the message Attarwala was also conveying in a Twitter thread that has now gone viral and garnered over 4,000 likes. 

It all started when she spotted her old home in Mumbai's slums while watching a Netflix series. 

"The Netflix series 'Bad Boy Billionaires: India" captures a birds-eye view of the slum in Bombay I grew up before moving out alone in 2015 to build my life. One of the homes you see in the photos is ours," she wrote on Twitter.

“In 2021 my family moved to an apartment where we can see the sky from home, good sunlight & ventilation. Surrounded by birds & Greenery. From my father being a hawker & sleeping on roads to having a life, we could barely dream of. Luck, Hardwork & picking battles that matter," added Attarwala. 

Further, she conveyed that the millions of families living in India in such conditions are unseen or rather ignored by a majority.

“Like me, millions of families in India live in poverty and are unseen by you. Their only hope is that an average educated Indian will ask the right questions to people in power and that can change their lives," she said. 

“Anyone who talks to you anything apart from the actual problem a poor Indian is facing is fooling you and selling you propaganda. If you are not convinced take the opportunity to live in a slum/village for a few days reality will hit hard," she added. 

According to her, asking the right questions to people in power and holding them accountable is something we owe to our country.

Her thoughts strung a chord with many, who replied to the thread with their thoughts about eradicating poverty. 

"Thanks for sharing Shaheena, absolute important purpose of any government should be " lifting poor out of poverty" human life is sacrosanct, every life deserves dignity, wish our states provide more support and help more in escaping poverty (sic)," wrote one person. 

 

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