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Traveling to India had become nothing special for me; I had done it many, many times before, so to me, why was this time going to be any different? Being at my home away from home, I felt like I knew the place very well, but this time around, I got the 'real' experience: an experience which changed my life forever, an experience which taught me the value of what I have, an experience which I can honestly say I will never forget...

It all started when my aunt took me near the heart of Mumbai to a part known as Dharavi, one of the many slums located in the city. Initially looking around, I was filled with a mixture of shock and awe. I couldn't believe what I was looking at. It seemed like there were thousands and thousands of people living in a region comparable to an acre. There was garbage, filth, and scrap was piled up in various locations throughout contributing to an already pungent aroma aspirating from the slum.

Recently, with the release of the movie, Slumdog Millionaire, and the ongoing debate about slum tourism, I began to rethink my trip to Dharavi, the same place depicted in the movie. After learning both sides of the debate and seeing that critics can argue back and forth on this debate, it brought me to question: What do the slum residents actually think about this? Are they alright with people coming into their homes and taking pictures of them? I found that most of the slum residents are alright with tourists coming if something is done to 'regulate' their actions. Through my paper, I will argue that without taking the considerations of the slum residents, neither side of the arguments made by critics can be valid.