The Worli Sea glazed to fill the darkness of his “slum-house” with its radiance. The shining contours of the city stroke his eyes and mocked the dark shadows on his shredded walls. Yes, it is the place called Dharvi in the heart of our commercial capital, Mumbai. Devour a lip savoring “chiki “or delight yourself in McDonalds, Mumbai is the station. The city of dreams itself is living in a contradiction, where one side is full of glamour and riches the other side doused in penury and slums.
The slums in dharvi have been called as an eyesore in the middle of India's financial capital. For the residents there it is home. The strong kinship enduring in the people of dharvi is inexplicable, the kind of alliance which the city life is deprived of. The extra effort of helping a neighbor , living like a community , washing clothes together and sharing joys as well as crisis. The aloof-society of the city lacks such bond and understanding. The city which is composed of riches is filled with the electrifying colors of glamour while the land of dharavi smolders with every chasing steps, the sound of the mischievous giggle and with a lot of underground biz happening there.
Yes, this city never sleeps. The brightness in the heart and the shimmering glow in the eyes of people here cease the dark blanket to veil the city.
Life in the city starts from the early knock on the door of a sweeper to take your house garbage away whereas Here nothing is considered garbage. Plastic toys are tossed into huge grinders, chopped into miniatures, melted and fused into multicolored pellets, ready to be refashioned into knockoff dolls. every cardboard box or gallons oil drum has another life, and another one after that. Dharvi is also renowned for its cotton industry
Gradually, this small part of Mumbai is getting metamorphosed into a city. The place which is called the slum-area and the houses as slums is the home of many.
The audacious venture of rehabilitation of slums is at once much simpler and infinitely much more complex. The dream of despoiling the lives of these slum dwellers and effacing their home in the name of slums is the dream of some contractors and the political parties. Downtown people claimed that the slums is choking the growth and life out of city and is a blotch in the map of the city. When Bangalore is rising every hour of the day how could Mumbai not achieve its stated destiny of becoming a world-class metropolis, a rival to China's soaring Shanghai, how could that happen there are such blemishes in the face of Mumbai., these human dumps where no one paid taxes? The plan of making a golf field and the sky touching buildings in this area gives guffaw to the residents of Dharvi. For them, golf is an anonymous term and sky touching building is a child’s desire of moon.
According to them, flushes in the toilets are futile and a waste of water by an individual. When deported to the city life Dharavi, the slum might find itself suddenly in the "wrong" place. “Dharvi”, is just not a location but the throbbing hearts of many people living in it.
While the development of Dharavi and its bright future brings a beam in the face on the rehabilitation team for their dream is near to its fate. But for the slum dwellers it’s a dream of a dreamer, dreaming in the day. And they do not want to be a part of this dream.
These conflicts of defacing and retaining do not threat the people here. They will struggle, cry, laugh, celebrate, dance but keep on living with dignity and happiness. The darkness is transitory and enigmatic he turns his face back to his child whose face was gleaming with the moonlight. At once, the dimness change into shining light with a jerk he taps his feet in the rhythm of “jeena isi ka naam hai”
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