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Azharuddin Ismail, 10, the child actor playing the role of 'young Salim', the brother of Jamal, protagonist of Slumdog Millionaire, the famous movie winner of 8 Oscar Academy Awards in December 2008, is playing with a water pump near a drain in the slum where he still lives with his family next to the train station of Bandra (East), Mumbai, India. Various promises were made to lift the two young actors (Azharuddin Ismail and Rubina Ali) from poverty and slum-life but as of the end of May 2009 anything is yet to happen. Rubina's house was recently demolished with no notice as it lay on land owned by the Maharashtra train authorities and she is now permanently living with her uncle's family in a home a stone-throw away in the same slum. Azharuddin's home too was demolished in the past two weeks, as it happens every year in his case, because the concrete walls were preventing local authorities to clear a drain passing right behind it. As usual, his father is looking into restoring the walls as soon as the work on the drain has been completed.
