Bubbly, fizzy and zesty Preity Zinta has turned 34 today and she has a whole list of birthday wishes and the top on her wishlist is an ID card for every person living in Mumbai.
"It's the only way to keep Mumbai from turning into a larger slum," she vows.
Preity will be working hard on her birthday. "The Punjab Cup matches go on right up to Feb 2. So I'm in Punjab. But for my birthday, I have sneaked back to Mumbai for a day. My thoughts on my birthday are, I want to stop thinking and start doing things. It breaks my heart to see the slums in Bandra just opposite where I stay. People live like animals there!"
High on her list of priorities for her birthday today is a determination to do her best to clean out her city. "After Slumdog Millionaire, I realised, 'Shit, this is how Mumbai is being seen in the West! I want a clean Mumbai. First of all, we need to look into the problem of illegal immigrants. In India, 'Mehmaan Bhagwan hota hai.' I urge immigrants to come to Mumbai through the right channels and they'll be welcome. There are slums coming up all over Mumbai because of arbitrary migrants."
Says Preity, "We don't want slums on Mumbai's roads. In the book Shantaram, an Australian man came and lived in the Mumbai slums without anyone knowing about him. Shantaram was a good man. But what if he was a terrorist? How do we tell the undesirable immigrant from the desirable? I think we need ID cards for every Mumbai-kar eye scan, fingerprints, the works. If Mumbai can't take any more outsiders, we must stop it."
She continues, "I believe workers who are brought in to build flyovers make their homes under these under-construction flyovers. Why not hire construction workers from Maharashtra? Why are we outsourcing so much of the workforce in Mumbai? Why are we paying taxes when we aren't getting the right administration?"
Hats off to Preity… Great Spirit! Happy Birthday!
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