Dharavi 03 - getting aquaintant

Shivar guesthouse, after some searching our hotel was found, and after two hours of waiting (09.00 PM) the rest of the crew got up. It's the first day every one can go to Dharavi, and we will go accompanied by an Indian student from JJ college of Architecture. After a few hours(!) of breakfast, preparation and formation, we are sent out to go around the area, joined by not one but two very nice Indian girls; Sonam and Daksha, who would prove to be an essential part of our group -group love- .

Walking around, Slicing Through

Dharavi is one of the largest slums in the world, it layes in the middle of the financial capital of India; Mumbai. The social differences between the inside and the outside must be enourmous. How does this area effect our sences?

Our first encounter with this urban fabric was one of recording senses; smelling, listening, feeling, looking. As my part was 'feeling', I concentrated on temperature, texture (pavement) and the feel of space (do you feel welcome?).

Walking around, it becomes clear that Dharavi is as an island in the city; every street going into the slum has some sort of informal sphere because of the pavement and the few people standing inside. This informal sphere makes the space like a private one, makes one feel like an intruder, an alien quite an unwelcome feeling. Even walking down the borders of it, consisting of four-lane distributor of traffic and two major train lines, we are looked at with great interest; people are not used to our kind of foreigners. Even though we are moving though an area with over 1 million inhabitants with a density of more than 2 times that of Manhattan, which in other cases would imply a much higher publicness of the space.
Inside the urban fabric of Dharavi, one noticess a great diffrence between areas. The slum is not one; it consists of various little communities, which are formed by profesional, social, religious, and sometimes even family based bands, which are directly translated in the morphological structure .
Dharavi is a massive caved community for communities, with fortification walls made of train tracks and asphalt.

Dharavi 02 - Arrival

After 14 hours, two aiplanes and lots of fun and exitement, we arrive in Mumbai. I try to smell the difference, after been told that this is a feature of India... not much difference, just a clear absence of ventillation.

An airport at 04.00 PM always has this strange feeling of unrootedness; a large space with little people awake in the middle of the night, as if it is outside all normal buisines to be here, silent, as if speaking is forbidden, separation by windows and fences, doors garded, only one way to go, as if we are criminals. Than; visa controle, somehow I get this nervous feeling something might be wrong (again), after a few moments of critical examination, I'm finally approved to enter the country; my Curry adventure can begin!

Dharavi 01

Beste achterblijvers,

Eindelijk, na een hele week mijn eerste bericht uit India. We hebben inmiddels de nodige opnames van sloppenwijk Dharavi gedaan en een beginnetje gemaakt aan het in kaart brengen ervan.

Alles hier is intens; geur, geluid, mensen, verkeer, verschil tussen arm en rijk, noem maar op. De armoede die mensen hier hebben is ongelooflijk; alles heeft hier waarde, van oude autoband tot gebruikte snoepverpakking. Er wordt echt keihard gewerkt om geld bijeen te krijgen om naar het geboortedorp te sturen en de stad lijkt daardoor meer 24h/7 dan New York. Enorm indrukwekkend.

Overal mensen; vandaag gingen we voor het eerst met de trein en voor degene die het spel lemmings kennen; vermenigvuldig het met 4 en doe daar het kwadraat van en je hebt een idee wat het is om hier in en uit de trein te stappen.

Voordeel van een arm land; alles is goedkoop, mijn duurste maaltijd was rond de 100 rupees, 1,70 EUR, taxi, voor 2 euro kan je zowat de hele stad zien (=gigantisch).
tot slot..'t weer mag er ook zijn ;-)

Helaas heb ik hier overal maar weinig tijd voor, volgende week willen we naar Taj Mahal, dus dat moet geregeld worden, ik probeer zo snel mogelijk weer iets te laten horen!!

Groeten aan iedereen,

x Stephan