I took a slum tour

A TALE OF A SLUM

Enterprising and hardworking – this is a slum that is characterised by its people. On a hot sunny day, I learnt the lesson Dharavi has to teach – the survival instinct

From an airplane window, the slums of Mumbai look like miles and miles of grey, filthylandscape. Come a little closer and the rugged, unplanned structures start to take shape. Even closer, standing in the middle of the largest slum in Asia, the picture just gets clearer. Tiny rays of sunlight peek through the one foot of space between two settlements. Thick bundles of electrical wires creep up alongside narrow passages and open drains and public bathrooms send out smells that become common place. There may be no legal electricity, but that doesn’t stop the TVs from functioning. There is no sight of a sewage system, and the waste finds its way through the alleyways. It is a jungle – of people, concrete (or something like it), ambitions and a unique spirit. A jungle called Dharavi.
In the heart of Mumbai – the business capital of India –the slum is now in the spotlight as the perfect site for an unusual business venture. It’s the hottest new tourist destination – and Reality Tours and Travels is taking visitors and Mumbaiites alike for a trip along its intriguing lanes. But this vast ghetto is no stranger to the business of business. And that’s what the trek focuses on. It snakes through the commercial bylanes of Dharavi – a slum that ironically has more than 10,000 small-scale industries that churn out an annual turnover of almost $650 million. And the manpower is at the industry’s beck and call. Almost one million of Mumbai’s population, that inhabits this piece of land sandwiched between two major north-south railway axes, works at this ingenious hub.
Dharavi surprises you every step of the way. The tour guide, Krishna Pujari, an enterprising young man,
navigates his way through the unusually named roads like a seasoned pro. Characterising the slum as slightly, ok very, eccentric, the roads are named after the lengths of the nallas running alongside them. So there is the 90 ft Road and the 60 ft Road. Just when you think that’s it, the names just get even more interesting. The first stop for the day is the 13th Compound. Why the 13th? Is there a 1st, a 2nd and so on? The guide laughs, “Nahin. What’s in a name?” He may just be right. No matter what the name, the goings on at the 13th Compound deserve an applause. This is the recycling hub of Dharavi, along with the heel-making hub and the oil container cleaning centre. The walls remind one of the remains of a bombed building and the path is slushy and pot hole-ridden. But work is work and it goes on. That Coke can you discarded, it is here, getting crushed, coloured, moulded and remodeled into newer plastic, which then gets ready to head back to the ones who discarded it in the first place (at much cheaper rates). But that’s not it. The compound also recycles cotton scrap, metal scrap, tins, paper, glass bottles and plastic drums. The slum doesn’t just excel at redoing things, it manufactures some hidden gems of its own. One of them being the heels we all strut around in, not the whole thing, just the heels - be it flat, pencil or wedge. Talk about delegating tasks.
Before one can examine their footwear in a totally different light, the group is ushered into a tuition centre and suddenly kids start reciting poetry. The efficient way the disrupted classroom reacts is evidence enough that this has happened before They all know Krishna and in correspondence to his winks and words of encouragement answer all questions with great ease. The sight may look orchestrated, but is impressing anyhow. Not impressing though is the pungent smell that indicates the advent of the tanning industries. The grounds are covered with wooly, bloody hides which are being tossed on to huge machines and the air is filled with a pungent smell, reminiscent of the school laboratory. Supposed to be the source of the cheapest and best quality leather products in Maharashtra, the slum boasts of shops that sell everything - jackets, shoes or car seat covers – you can get it all here. The harsh sound made by the massive machinery is interspersed with a strange music. And this is why the slum is a trove of surprises. Bang in the middle of the chaos is a video game parlour, with two slot machines and a mini fridge with refreshments. If there was ever an enterprising lot, they have to be the people living here.
As everywhere in Dharavi, one small scale industry gives way to another. Amid a large group of laughing women who are bent over their colourful utensils gently rolling out papads, the group is heckled at and giggling fits of laughter follow the remarks. Even though the foreigners are unaware of what sins they have committed (or what’s so funny about them), few of them buy the papads in a bid to redeem themselves. Nevertheless, the laughter continues.
The day is coming to an end, but there’s one last stop. The city of the potters- Kumbharwada – stands proud before us. Home to 1,200 potters (and growing), most of them from Saurashtra, this area is like an oasis. Relatively cleaner than the rest of Dharavi (Krishna tells us that is so because the potters are all vegetarian), the small exclusive settlement is like a model village - houses made of mud and lanes lined with wonderfully carved pots and lamps. “You can buy a lamp here for Rs two, but outside it won’t be less than Rs 12,” says a smiling potter as he effortlessly moulds one pot after another. The women smile at the strangers (even though their faces are half covered with their coloured sarees) and invite them in for a thali and a cup of tea. Some stop to oblige, but business here is finished and Krishna hurries back to the car. He collects the Rs 600 that the travel agency charges for this tour and swears that 80 per cent of it goes to an NGO working for the slum. It’s all worth it. The slum seems like a familiar place. It may be full of contradictions - be it the uncommon names for the roads and areas, the cross-cultural mix of people living here or the unique way the past and present exist in the same space – but that’s what is endearing about it. Proud and enterprising, the people of Dharavi welcome you into their territory without prejudice. And that’s how they should be treated. The next time you view it with a mixture of fear, curiosity and revulsion – try a little understanding. It is a living example of the spirit very few of us possess. The spirit of undeniable courage and determination – the spirit to exist.