Rashmi Bansal - Poor Little Rich Slum

westland ltd

Venkat Towers, 165, P.H. Road, Opp. Maduravoyal Municipal Office, Chennai 600 095 No. 38/10 (New No.5), Raghava Nagar, New Timber Yard Layout, Bangalore 560 026 Survey No. A - 9, II Floor, Moula Ali Industrial Area, Moula Ali, Hyderabad 500 040 Plot No 102, Marol Coop Ind Estate, Marol, Andheri East, Mumbai 400 059 4322/3, Ansari Road, Daryaganj, New Delhi 110 002

First published by westland ltd 2012

Copyright Rashmi Bansal and Deepak Gandhi 2012
Photographs copyright Dee Gandhi

All rights reserved

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

ISBN: 978-93-81626-18-4

Typeset by Magic Touch

Printed at Manipal Technologies Ltd., Manipal

This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out, circulated, and no reproduction in any form, in whole or in part (except for brief quotations in critical articles or reviews) may be made without written permission of the publishers.

Dedicated to
Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev
of Isha Foundation

Because what lies within is what really matters

I have lived in Mumbai most of my life but never set foot inside Dharavi.

Not until 15 February 2011, when we made our first, tentative trip to explore the idea of this book.

Deepak strongly felt this book needed to be written, I was not so sure.

Who wants to read about slums? Only professors of sociology and NGO-types.

But maybe, thats why this book had to be written.

We are ordinary middle-class citizens.

The kind who employ maids and drivers from slums.

We are decent human beings.

The kind who think mainly about our own comforts and careers.

We didnt go into Dharavi with an overactive conscience. We went there with a sense of adventure. To discover, what the hell this place is all about.

In the beginning, it was difficult. We could not see beyond the obvious the garbage, the filth, the sluminess of the slum.

One afternoon, straight from Dharavi, we went to have lunch at the Trident Hotel in BKC, just two kilometres away. The toilet cubicle was bigger than the house wed just visited.

Pasta didnt slide down our throats that afternoon.

The unfairness of it all, suddenly came alive.

Over time, we grew familiar with people and places in Dharavi. We looked into the eyes of a civilisation, and saw beauty within the chaos.

This book is an attempt to share that expansive experience, through the limited medium of words and pictures. Writing it restored our faith in humanity. We can be happy, we can be hopeful, we can be enterprising no matter where we are.

The question is are you?

If Dharavi can, so can I.

January 2012, Mumbai Rashmi Bansal, Deepak Gandhi, Dee Gandhi

Whats the big deal anyway?

It was six men of Indostan
To learning much inclined,
Who went to see the Elephant
(Though all of them were blind),
That each by observation
Might satisfy his mind

And so these men of Indostan
Disputed loud and long,
Each in his own opinion
Exceeding stiff and strong,
Though each was partly in the right,
And all were in the wrong!

John Godfrey Saxe

Dharavi is an elephant of an issue with blind men scrambling all over it. Each sees a small part of the picture and considers it to be the whole.

To the residents of Dharavi, it is a way of life. They live here, work here, marry here and even die here. Whats the big deal anyway?

Bombay mein sab log aisaich rehte hain, idhar family hai, biradari hai... yehi hamara ghar hai.

The resident of Dharavi is blind to the inconvenience of living in a place where one toilet is shared by 1,440 residents. Because he knows no other world.

To the residents of high-rise buildings in Mumbai a small but important slice of people Dharavi is Asias largest slum. A filthy place you see through a car, with windows rolled up tight.

Silently admiring the leather bags in the boutiques on Sion-Dharavi Link Road. Mentally noting, I must stop here some time!

The high-rise resident is blind to the community and kinship of Dharavi. To the little girl who may live in a 100 sq ft house with eight other siblings, but still has a smile in her eyes.

To the businessmen who operate in Dharavi, it is a convenience. Cheap labour and cheap rent make it a mega-hub of micro-enterprise. $650 million is the sum total of Dharavis annual turnover.

Idhar sab tarah ka kaam hota hai!

The businessman is blind to the toll on human life. The living conditions, the working conditions, leave much to be desired. But as long as dhandha chal raha hai, who cares?

To the builder who proposes to redevelop Dharavi, it is a goldmine. 1.7 sq km in the heart of the city, right next to the upmarket Bandra Kurla Complex.

You see, Dharavi is value waiting to be unlocked.

The builder is blind to the human beings who occupy this prime property. All he can see are the zeros people will pay for fancy new apartments. If only those pesky residents could somehow be persuaded to move, into a 225 sq ft free house.

To the government, who owns Dharavi, it is a time-bomb. Redevelopment will bring in much-needed money into state coffers. But how much of it will come into our pockets, is what they really want to know.

We promise to make Mumbai into Shanghai, they say.

The government is blind to its responsibility. It is their duty to create a safe, clean and well-functioning environment. Not an option, a measure in hindsight.

To the outsiders who come to Dharavi, it is a project. Filmmakers, artists, poets and PhD students are all flocking there to study the slum experience.

We get to learn so many new things here, understand a different way of life!

The outsider is blind to the drudgery of Dharavi. He chooses to see a colourful, chaotic, creatively inspirational mess. We watch these blind men as they scramble over the elephant of Dharavi. It is an amusing sight and, at the same time, a tragic one.

In Dharavi everyone is too
busy doing their own thing...

When I first heard about Dharavi Slum Tours a couple of years ago, I thought to myself, Ugh.