Post Dharavi

Almost 3 weeks have past since we got back from Mumbai and Dharavi. A lot can be said about the workshop and this trip but one thing is sure, this was an experience I will not forget.

I've tried to tell people about these 3 weeks, but it's really difficult. Finding the essence of this trip. It feels like no matter how many pictures you show or how detailed you describe what happend it doesn't even come close to the real thing we experienced. But if I had to describe it short, maybe even with just one word it would be intense.
Intense in terms of smell, heat, desity, cultural differences, taste, noise, sound, visual impressions, emotional impressions... everything.

The same goes for the mapping workshop, it was intense. Trying to reach some what of an understanding of a place like this was certainly not easy and I'm still not entirely convinced about all the exercises, but still I think all of us learnt alot. Probably much more than one could see in the exhibition we did after 2 weeks of post producing the material we gathered in Dharavi. But I guess that's what happen when you put yourself in new and different situations. Many of the things that happend to us in this place were things that may have effected us more as private persons than architectural students and I think that is a good thing, in terms of the whole "growing as a human" part.. maybe.. or something like that.

Before we left for Mumbai a lot of my friend who had been to the city before said (in a cynical way) "3 weeks in Mumbai, ha! have fun, it's the worst city I've ever visited" For me, Mumbai may not be the most wonderful city in the world, but Dharavi is for sure one of the more interesting places I've been.
I wouldn't hesitate to go back.