Question

Describe or explain about the life of a person living in a chawl in Bombay

Answer 1

A Chawl life is quite contradictory to what you see in today's world especially the fact that people are secluded in behavior unlike a chawl. A chawl stimulates interaction among communities, and there is a bridged gap between rich and poor. In today's era a chawl is occupied by several middle-class people including people from different parts of the country. Although there is such a big difference in culture and religious and ethnic backgrounds, people in chawl have still maintained healthy relationships and it is less likely to have disputes between communities. Hence you could find Christians, Hindus, Muslims, Jains, Parsis, etc., all living under the same roof.The architectural similarity between all chawls are their balcony structures- these were created so that people could come out of their houses and interact with each other. The balconies form common grounds for people to mingle.

Chawls have a very unique heritage value. They are good examples that show how peaceful different communities can live with each other. Not only that, neighbours get to learn each other's tradition and cultures and it exposes much learning into religions and beliefs.