The Beating Heart of Mumbai

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Amid a narrow warren of side streets close to the mosque that dominates the skyline on the edge of the mega-slum of Dharavi, in the heart of Mumbai, a young boy tilts his head back and stares up at the narrow strip of blue which is all that can be seen of the sky. Rickety warehouses crowd in from all sides, their high sheet-metal walls and overhanging asbestos roofs blocking out the sun, plunging the dirt streets below into a gloomy half-light, though it is nearly midday.

Far, far above, the vapour trail of a plane is breaking up, fraying at the edges and drifting away. Ten-year-old Anwar Khan watches it for a while, thinking about the question he has been asked. Eventually he gives his answer: 'A pilot,' he says. 'I'd like to be a pilot. I'd love to know what it feels like to be in the air. I've never been in the air. I want to be closer to the sky.'

Like most of the 1m people who live in Dharavi - Asia's biggest, and probably its most vibrant, slum - Anwar has never been in a plane; but like many of those crammed into the 535-acre former fishing village, he doesn't waste time wallowing in self-pity. Anwar is a boy with a plan.

That, at least, is something he shares with Jamal Malik, the central character in British director Danny Boyle's critically acclaimed new movie, Slumdog Millionaire (which is released on 9 January). Set in Dharavi, the film has been attracting rave reviews and is already being talked about as a serious Oscar contender. Based on the novel Q&A, by Vikas Swarup, the film is at heart a love story that revolves around Jamal's appearance on the Indian version of Who Wants to be a Millionaire. Somehow he gets through to the final question, only to be arrested and interrogated. How could an impoverished teenager from Dharavi possibly know the answers?

Dharavi gets a terrible press. Most reports focus on the grinding poverty, the open drains and the rats skittering over the rooftops. There are even guided tours of the slum, so visitors can marvel at the misery.

The Dharavi of popular perception is a Dickensian hellhole with gangs of feral children running wild; a place of despair and misery and want, where hope is dead and the light at the end of the tunnel is a train.

The real-life Dharavi of 2008 is indeed a shock to the system, but not because it conforms to the stereotype, rather because it defies it so dramatically. The reality for most of the inhabitants is a well-ordered community where the majority are in work, children go to school and families try to make a better life for themselves by dint of sheer hard work.

Article:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/dec/21/dharavi-india-slums-slumdog-...