dharavi presentation - koliwada

the students in the meeting

at dharavi yesterday, we held the first of our scheduled three public meetings in the area. the meeting was held at the koli jamaat hall in koliwada and organized by the koli leaders. the hall is on the first floor within the dense fabric just off the main road and entered through vinyl floral cutouts with photographs of muscular men. besides the students i counted at least 80 people from the community. though most were from koliwada itself there were also people from the other stakeholders participating in the project. ninad made a shuddh marathi presentation about fsi / mukesh mehta / possibly larger houses. the first few responses were very antagonistic – especially about who we were and what was our interest in the area. especially since the name of the school was ‘raheja’. paul and ninad did a reasonable job of pacifying the crowd and were helped a lot by the people who ahd given us support on the field. the meeting then continued with dazzling performances by different people who took the opportunity to orate vociferously on the probable benefits of the projects to the people of dharavi. it was exciting and dramatic. i doubt i have seen a more exciting process for an architectural design studio. interventioning as academics.

the 'holi maidan' where the last meeting is scheduled

the street to the koi jamaat hall

the entrance from the main road to the koli jamaat hall

the community members

kini from the koli community