Snowy_Y, Feb. 2024
My sister and I waited inside Third Wave Coffee Shop for our tour guide to come. We did not receive any prior information of who our tour guide would be, so we just waited to see who would turn up looking like one. Our guide, Pooja, called me on Whatsapp to locate me, and she came inside the coffee store to find us. Turns out other people on the tour were also waiting inside the coffee shop. Including us 2, there was a total of 8 people on the tour. NB Pooja was not in tour guide uniform.
She gathered us and walked us over to Dharavi to start the tour, and stopped at several places (train station, entrance etc.) to give some background information about the area and general Mumbai transport as well. She had great English, great delivery and fun humour as well, making several jokes along the way and interacting with us.
She first brought us to the commercial section where workers where mainly working plastic and making products such as soap, clothes and bags. There was a certain street where they were cutting plastic that created such an unbearable stinging scent that made us all cough and not breathe properly, so we had to leave that area quickly. Otherwise, it was interesting to learn about the different processes happening there.
She then took us through streets/the river where Slumdog Millionaire was filmed, and through a nicer area selling food and fruits etc., though without stopping or more introduction.
We then arrived at the leather section, where she introduced the industry some more, and she brought us to what we reckon is a partner shop where we stayed for somewhat longer than expected as we waited for some fellow members to shop for the leather backpacks they wanted.
We then moved onto the last pottery area, which we only stayed for a very short period of time, I suppose because time was up, so didn't get much introduction from Pooja there, then quickly walked back to our starting point.
Overall was very interesting, glad to have joined to learn more about Dharavi. I would say Pooja's walking pace was very quick, so although my sister and I kept us fine, fellow members who walked more leisurely almost lost us along the way, especially when traffic and crowd flow was so busy, so would recommend sticking closer as a pack. I was initially rather worried about dress code and safety, but we were fine in our normal attire (short sleeve top and long pants), and at no point felt endangered or harassed, though when we stopped to get some water, my sister did get asked by some beggars to give them money, so there's that.