Opinion: New Dharavi Producing Millionaires, Not "Slumdog" - by Gautam Adani
NDTV
On his bucket list, former world heavyweight boxing champion Mike Tyson listed two places in India that he wished to visit: one was the Taj Mahal and the other was Dharavi.
My first tryst with Dharavi was in the late 1970s. New to Mumbai, I was just another anonymous youngster lured to the big city by opportunity and my own optimism that I would make a beginning in the diamond trade. Even back then, Dharavi was a melting pot of a diverse array of beliefs, cultures and languages from every part of India. I was mesmerised by the industrious chaos that I saw in Dharavi's alleys where just about every Indian language seemed to echo with equal urgency. But there was order in that chaos, seemingly provided by the soul of Dharavi. I could never define it but felt it very strongly.
That visit to Dharavi was both humbling and disturbing. The community's struggle for survival, laced with equanimity and happiness, inspired me. However, it also burned a question into my mind: Will their fate ever change?
