Behind The Beautiful Forevers Essay

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On October 23rd, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Katherine Boo spoke, as part of the Indiana Journalism School’s speaker series, about her experiences whilst writing her 2012 book Behind the Beautiful Forevers. Behind the Beautiful Fovevers follows the lives of residents of Annawadi, a Mumbai slum that is located right next to the city’s international airport. Whilst writing her book, Boo spent three whole years living in the Annawadi slum. Boo’s book has garnered practically ubiquitous acclaim from fans and critics, in both India and America, since its release two years ago. Therefore, it was none to surprising to see that Alumni Hall was nearly filled to capacity on the night that she gave her talk. The talk also got quite a bit of local press as there were articles about the talk on the Journalism school’s website and in the Indiana Daily Student newspaper. The reaction from the press and the person that interviewed after the talk led me to realize that I was not the only person who had enjoyed and learned something from Boo’s talk. Prior to attending this talk, all I knew about India was that it is a large…show more content…
Donna, the lady whom I interviewed, is retired and didn’t disclose her profession prior to her retirement. Donna, who hadn’t yet read Boo’s book Beyond the Beautiful Forevers, stated she attended Boo’s talk because she was “interested in the subject matter [of the talk]” and sought “mental stimulation”. After sitting through Boo’s hour-long talk and the 20-30 minute question and answer session that followed, Donna stated that listening to Boo was “very though-provoking” and made her want to “learn more about the subject”. Also, presumably like most other attendees of Boo’s lecture who hadn’t read her book yet, Donna stated that she was “very likely to buy the book” after attending Boo’s talk and enjoyed the talk “very

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