In May 2007 National Geographic published a story about the Dharavi neighborhood in Mumbai, India.  Accompanied with fantastic photographs made by Jonas Bendiksen, the story captured my attention.  In August 2007 I was in India for work. With the NGM story still in my mind, I used the opportunity to visit Dharavi.

I arranged for a taxi and driver to show me around. There’s a main street about 1.5 miles long through the middle of Dharavi. The driver stopped at one end, told me to get out, and to meet him at the other end in a couple hours (we had phones to sync up).  I asked, “your not going to walk around with me”?  His response – “no, if you do that you won’t be respected”.  Solo it was. I wandered around not really knowing what I was doing, ventured off the main street, got lost in the maze like alley ways, purchased flip flops to wade through the ankle deep waters, and met curious and welcoming people, some inviting me into their home. It was the middle of monsoon season with typical monsoon weather.