The view from the blue shanties

I should have expected some changes itrsquos been over a year since I last visited Mumbai But this time there was something different unsettling about the view through the window as my flight fell toward the maximum cityItrsquos not that slums and skyscrapers have not always been uneasy neighbours in this cityscape The brisk bai who serves a dozen apartments in your highrise is on time every day only because her shanty is right outside your palace gates The last things you see before touching down on the silky runways of Mumbairsquos international airport are usually the chaotic conundrums of the worldrsquos largest slum DharaviThis time I flew over seas of blue the plastic sheets that keep the rain out of the tinroom shanties they cover They were unbroken except where without warning a bristly outcrop of highrises would muscle its way out of the sprawling slum belowOver 10 lakh Mumbaikars or roughly 525 per cent live in slums Half of this Gothic Mumbai scrabbles daily for work income basic food dignity health and a decent lifeOne of them cooks for you Another drives your car Perhaps a third mops your floor and washes your dirty clothes When you have your highso rooftop parties the people from the blue shanties move around between guests invisible and unseen canapeacutes on plates for allSome people from the towers proclaim the domestic help to be ldquoequalrdquo and even address them in English as though that proved their point Here are two test questions for themmdashWhat would you feel if your bai sat down to eat lunch at the same table with you and your familyMore interestingly what do you think she would feel if you invited her toMy questions floated wordless till the end of my India visit in Kolkata where my friend Gulan was trying to pretend she wasnrsquot turning 70 Finding me captive and pliant she bound me to a chair and insisted I watch two movies almost backtoback Sir and Gully BoyAnd there they were againmdashthe people from the blue shanties Both films are bold audacious explorations of the dreams and primal screams of people defined by what they do not have from money and possessions to dignity and hopeIn Sir Ratna Tilottama Shome comes from her village to work as a maid for a rich builderrsquos son Aashwin fresh from a broken engagement and a promising life in New York Ratna fleeing from the ignominy of widowhood in a village dreams of being a fashion designer An unlikely romance blooms between these two people from different universes But can such a relationship even workGully Boy based on the reallife story of the rapper Naezy is also about a dreamer from the blue shanties With an angry father who tells him that a ldquoservantrsquos son is doomed to also be a servantrdquo Murad aka Gully Boy learns that life is about changing your reality to match your dreams not the other way aboutIn Sir Aashwinrsquos buddy points out reasonably that the relationship would never work because ldquoshe canrsquot even use a forkrdquo The maid knows that she would be reviled and shamed in the building as well as her village if she fell in love with a rich city boyIn Gully Boy the rich girl Sky Kalki Koechlin falls for slumdog rapper Murad When he points out how different their worlds are she says ldquoYou are an artist What does it matter where yoursquore from and what you bringrdquoI believe that half of Mumbai will live unaware of the other half until some sort of cataclysmic eventmdashlike an earthquakemdashcreates a new equality by stripping them of their glittering material attachmentsI equally believe that there may be nothing more important in this country and at this time than to stop being yourself for just a moment and step into someone elsersquos shoes even if only for a few daysWhat does a woman in a hut whose husband has brought home a mistress feel like What does it feel like to be a homeless street child Or a graduate youth refused work because of his beard What does a young woman go through when told to marry instead of finishing collegeI can promise that you will struggle and you will give up exhausted Your very presence will change the people you want to understand But the effort matters more than the result even if all you discover is how little you know about the people so closely intertwined with your worldIn one of Gully Boyrsquos most poignant moments Murad is chauffeuring his bossrsquos daughter who is crying soundlessly in the back He longs to reach out to comfort her but knows that cannot happen between their universes It leads to some of the most memorable rap lyrics in the film mdashAb dekho to hum pass hainLekin socho kitni doori haiAb kaisi yeh mazboori haiAb socho kitni doori haiYou can reach C Y Gopinath at cygopigmailcomSend your feedback to mailbagmiddaycomThe views expressed in this column are the individualrsquos and donrsquot represent those of the paper