present

no matter what you are given.. the gesture combined with all warm feelings related with people is the most important.. it doesn't matter how old and where you are..

Happy Holly!

holiday full of colors and music.. to have a real fun you need to take part in it:)

Thursday action

for a while I had impression that we were loosing control over the situation, children were really enthusiastic about the event, court was full of children..
afterwards we placed drawings in different parts of Muslim Nagar on walls of houses..

above the city

fort_mumbai

fort hidden in the park and looking from above on Dharavi and "modern" city..
tunnel leading in the past to the city located 200km away form Mumbai..
in the greenery "library" without books:)..more place to study..
ruins used for meditation..
heterotopia??

form Aurangabad..

ellora_caves

Ellora caves..where Buddhist, Hindu and Jain are sharing the shelter..

Hindu temple nearby Aurangabad

cycling through Indian villages we discovered Hindu temple..

Bibi-Qa-Maqbara(fake Taj :)

sometimes imagination makes things more beautiful and unique..
it's little bit like with memories from the childhood..:)

Panchakki

henna

it's not only about effective drawing on your skin..

inside

we are not used to situation when a stranger is inviting us to his/her own house..
we feel insecure when other people are close.. we - Europeans have much more defined our personal space, security zone.. it's not only about our bodies..
children are asking to follow them.. I am going to one blocks of flats and they are showing me their little brother tightly wrapped in piece of cloth..
it's amazing that the child is not screaming at all and you can easily pass him form one person to another..

family holiday:)

baptism

being allowed to celebrate family holiday is amazing experience..
in Muslim tradition family living far away form Mumbai is coming for celebration..
traditional meal is prepared - if the boy was born two goats are sacrificed, if the girl one animal is killed. This process is regulated by Halal..
..it's strange feeling when you realize that the meal which you have on your plate was walking around you in the morning..:)

Muslim Nagar temples

these special places are not only used for praying purpose, most of mosques are organising Arabic language courses..
we met few Hindu altars, all of them were located in housing neighbourhood and being used by women who are mainly working at home..
one day our attention was attrecked by sound of singing people somewhere above..
Amina expained us that on second floor nearby there is Christian unformal church and asked if we want to go upstairs..
in few minutes we participated in Christian service:)

coconut

somehow in between my first coconut(Jaime's picture:)

something after breakfast

..simplicity is something which always amazed me
small things always attracking attention - like dosa form the crossing wrapped in newspaper with leaf inside:)

Muslim Nagar

what means "poverty"?
walking in the slum I used to surrounded me environment.. world which normaly you would call "poor" is just "normal"
..real poverty has nothing in common with this phisical one..
.."we are poor and we don't know how to play" wrote Heidegger..
..Indians have some kind of dignity, proud difficult to describe..

mumbai bus trip

..today we could feel like real tourists..
living next to the biggest slum in Mumbai I feel insecure in other part of the city..
somehow Dharavi is becoming our home.. in Colaba you are obviously tourist..
..who wants to live in the slum area?:)
in Dharavi salesman nearby the hostel already knows what I am going to buy for a breakfast:).. the boy whom I met yesterday is shouting from the distance "hello marta"..it's a pity I don't remember his name..

Dharavi Main Road

..Dharavi streets are melting in the sun..in the morning almost empty they are starting waking up around 7.30 and falling asleep around midnight..
..light generate places where people are gathering..
..most of pedestrians are men..

06.03.08

Shieva_holiday

..where tolerance is born in the middle of the street..

09-10.03.08

..to appreciative the city I need nature..
..murud

murud and on the way:)

mumbai temples

explore_mumbai_temples_trip

can I make you a picture? you have such beautiful eyes - first time unknown women is asking me such question:)

07.03.08

Today we had a chance to visit our Indian colleges school of architecture.
We had the lecture linking Dharavi situation with Mumbai development.
..how to solve the problem of the poorest area of the city and at the same time provide metropolis development? ..two sides of the conflict seem to speak different languages.. and the real sollution probbobly is laying outside the city..

JJ school

welcome

flowers meaning "welcome" and colorful sign on my forehead:)

05.03.08

..trip without cameras through manufacture zone:)
..example how to make something out of nothing..
..lesson of creativity:)

04.03.08_ lecture

According to one of the lectures in Dharavi people here found out their own system of solving problems based on mediation and common discussion.
.. maybe we should learn something from that..
.. to start listening instead of only expressing ourselves..

05.03.08

..the end of our walk.. foot bridge - on one side of the road mosquee - on the other Hindu temple

dharavi

..walk through Dharavi..

today Ved left us for a while and one Indian guy came to us trying to explain something.. we were scared thinking that we are not allowed to be present at the place.. after a while we found out that he just wanted to show us the other group of students..

04.03.08

first time in my life I regret that I am white, very white..

03.03.08

..our first walk in Dharavi - with Indian colleges..
we were walking on the rail track till the policeman told us about accident which had happened few minutes before..

02.03.08

I woke up with birds and people praying on the street..


train to Colaba..
walking in the city we discovered slum areas..

India

..my first time ouside Europe..

mapping workshops

mapping workshops

it's amazing how much depends on the point of view from which you are looking at the world.. perception can be easily changed and the way of understanding as well.. the question arises if and to what extend we are willing to open our mind for different and unknown.. are we ready to take a risk and like a child try to absorb what we are going to be given ?
mapping exercise in Delft gave us possibility to work with people.. they haven't been always ready to cooperate.. how it's going to work in India where communication barrier is even bigger?

photography workshops

building and reconstruction of slum

I think the experience of building and reconstruction of slum was the most interesting in terms of working in a group of people.
Together we can reach much more then alone.
We are living in society and we are dependent on others.
To start doing something together is the most difficult but process is teaching us tolerance and confronting with other opinions.
That, I think will be especiall useful in India where we are going to be in totally different sourrounding to which we are used to.

workshops_slum

workshops_slum