QUICK TAKES - May 15, 2009

The 10-year-old Indian star of “Slumdog Millionaire” was awakened Thursday by a policeman wielding a bamboo stick and ordered out of his home. Minutes later it was bulldozed along with dozens of other shanties in the Mumbai slum that Azharuddin Mohammed Ismail calls home.

City officials said the shanties were targeted because they had been built illegally along a drain.

Eight Oscars and $326 million in box-office receipts have done little to improve the lives of the two impoverished children plucked from obscurity to star in the film, Azha and 9-year-old Rubina Ali. They have been showered with gifts and brief bursts of fame -- including a trip to L.A. for the Academy Awards show in February -- but their day-to-day lives are little changed.

After the latest misfortune, Azhar and his family will be spending the night on the muddy ground surrounded by the rubble of their shack. Rubina has fared no better: Her family’s shanty was flooded for days last month with sewage water from a backed-up drain.