To give you an example of different use, a musical on xxx-wallas taking their music procession, I listened this song in a marriage party, the song flows nicely.

If you can do it right, then it mayn’t be insult. It is more usable with a functional attribute, and therefore sometimes as part of functional group….So if there is backlash against wall street, you could say “wall-street-walla” screwed this up. However that use is demeaning when compared to uses of “Mr President”. Here president is not a functional class, but a whole aspiration. You could also eulogize wallahs if one chooses to, as you do to a functioning group.

South Asia, where caste and social standing are all-important and your lot in life pretty much determined at birth, being referred to as a “walla” is most certainly an insult. And by the way

Sometimes people would check your university degree when applying for a job. Professional degrees also help. So if you have a degree from Harvard, then I am sure someone out there who could sell your ghost …the presence as a harvard associate:)

We have our own stories of rags to riches, sometimes they are boring, we still cheer them:)

trying to advance the tired and dangerous cliche that there is some inherent nobility in poverty

In reality, I have never heard (yet) anybody justifying nobility of poverty in a slum. The nobility in poverty argument is more espoused by the critiques and in literature ( VS Naipaul? and probably others ), some to criticize the socialist era inaction.
Most or all understand problems with slums and unauthorized constructions. The bigger and older the city, the slum and encroachment problem grows more acute. Like many, I wish somebody would have done something to it.

[I haven't watched slumdog, no immediate plans to watch it]

Switching topics, some upper-class Indians are mad at the “Slumdog Millionaire” because of the way the slums are depicted in the movie. I myself thought that the slum depiction was a little too much. Some of the comments are so true. Availability of clean drinking water for all people is a scarcity and sanitary conditions are almost non-existent.

But, I don’t believe that even in the slums, someone will dive into a pool of human waste even if you paid them to do it. On the other hand, an entire class of workers who clean the excrement do have to undignified work sometimes. The Indian middle class is growing bigger every day and some of them don’t know what to do with their money. A lot of the middle-class people love to copy everything bad from the West, but don’t want to follow any of the good things like respecting all types of workers, standing in a line in an orderly way, not paying or expecting bribes for their work etc. I believe that corruption is the root of all evil. Unfortunately, I have come to realize that it is playing major role even in our US politics now.

The poor, of course, living as one might expect, in a tiny one room flat with a couple kids. Thinking that if they only had money, things would be so much better and they’d be happy.

The rich, the example I remember was an elder widower in a very nice spacious house/flat, was so lonely and desperate for contact. She also thought, if only she had something else to make her happy.

At least that’s what I remember from it. It makes you think, just a bit.

And perhaps relatedly, there was an article in the Atlantic magazine (which I dropped the subscription to after this past primary season) that talked about how the poor spend more of their money, up to 25% more, than more middle class people did. It wasn’t to show off that they had money, it was to avoid people thinking they were poor. The paradox of spending money to look like you have money is lost upon many people, rich and poor alike.

My line is “you can’t spend your way to a higher economic class”.

But I also wondered looking at those photos last night, the children dressed to the nines at the award ceremonies, how they’re getting their heads around this sudden shift of fortune and what’s in store for them? Right now they’re in the spotlight, on the red carpet. What happens when that all goes away?

Fame is a fickle suitor, even for grownups. I hope it goes well for them.