Linguistic Underpinnings

After much hesitation, today I made a call and a friend  and I set out to go on the  Reality Tours “Dharavi Slum Tour”.  For those of you who are unfamiliar with Dharavi, it’s one of the largest slums in Asia and it’s just a half hour ride from where I live in Mumbai, India. It’s spread out between railroad tracks in an area of about 1/2 square miles, with a population of about 1 million. That means: small space, lots of people.

The area itself is home to many industries and the place should be thought of as a extremely dense city rather that simply closely stacked homes (think even smaller living spaces than you thought before). Each year Dharavi generates around 650million USD while residents pay as little as 4USD per month in rent. Leaving  you wondering where all the cash goes. I would love to hear a break down. Not all of the profits stay in Dharavi and it should be understood that while some businesses profit there, their owners may live elsewhere and simply take advantage of the low pay allotted workers and cheap land costs of Dharavi.

A few of the many industries we saw on the tour were plastics recycling, pottery working, cleaning of vegetable oil tins, dying of cloth and leather, and embroidery. In almost all of these conditions I found myself thinking… “Wow it the air in here is bad, wow this room is too small for this, and wow it must be crazy to work here everyday”.  I couldn’t help but guess at the number of strange illnesses that come when you sit in a room all day with melting plastic or burning oil, but I for one got a head ache almost immediately and stepped out.  The level of industrial work being done by hand was shocking and the work conditions in the heaviest industries seemed to promise their employees shortened life spans.

Other industries, such as pottery, offered more hospitable work environments. Walking through the section of Dharavi devoted to clay work was peaceful and the space was more open. Large pits in the ground held clay, and pots were piled up left and right. Here too though, smoking kilns burning something that seemed like cast offs of industrial work (scraps of wool and cloth) put a thick smoke in the air, and our guide told us that many people in the area suffered from respiratory problems.

Perhaps most amazing of all was the non-chalant endurance and acceptance of the people working in Dharavi.   After just 2 and a half hours of walking through the cramped quarters I was ready for a shower, thirsty for clean water and longing for fresher air.  People living there seemed genuinely happy in many cases,  especially the children who responded to us trapseing through their territory by calling out greetings to us and running to see us pass by their windows like we were some kind of fantastic event.

The residents of Dharavi seemed clean, hard working, kind and curious. As in most tough environments people are simply trying to do the best they can with what they have and working to improve life for their children.

It was especially meaningful to visit Dharavi after having heard so much about it in the media, seen clips of it in Slum Dog Millionare, and after having met some of the people who are working there with NGOs. Indeed the architecture of the place is ramshackel and crazy clostrophobic at times, and of course the culture is Indian but on a more intense level. We ducked and wove through a residential space at one point where people sprawled out in 6′x6′ rooms with a little TV and you knew 5 people lived there. We passed by low hanging wiring that was tangled with cobwebs- we’d been warned to watch our heads as someone dies every 2-3 months because of dangerous electrical connections. I think I got my 400 rupees worth.

People praise Dharavi as a self-made city, and I’ve heard it described as “organic” and “intuitive” in terms of it’s overall layout. Perhaps “functional chaos” is a better way to think of it.

By any definition, it is certainly a unique location.

What does the future metropolis look like? Cars fly, architects continue to push the anticipated forms of buildings, things float certainly. Things look more religious, things look postapocalyptic. The sky is brown and bright blue and then so polluted that the light is weak and the sun only sort of shines.  It’s crowded. It’s Empty. There are few consistencies.

Slush of portable homes.