Dharavi, Aurangabad, Udaipur

My last few days in Mumbai were spent walking around the suburbs of the city. I participated in a slum tour, which I was a bit skeptic about doing, but ended up being fascinating. We visited Dharavi Slum, one of the biggest in Asia, and saw the working quarters (mostly dealing with recycling metal and plastic) and living quarters of the slum dwellers. While some of the living and hygiene conditions were really horrible (kids swimming in the swampy black river fishing for garbage) the slum is a very organized place, with its own hierarchy of people and businesses. It generates over 600 million us dollars a year. The people dont see much money though, its the ones who own the workshops and industries (and dont live in the slum) who profit.
After Mumbai I headed with a friendly canadian, Dustin to Aurangabad, a lazy dusty town not too far into Maharashtra, to visit the Hindu, Buddhist, and Jain caves of Ellora, carved into the mountains over generations, and the fort of Dalautabad.
We finally made it to Udaipur a few days later after many buses and trains and rickshaws. Udaipur is really gorgeous, built on hilly terrain, and surrounded by hazy mountains, with lots of Rajhastani architecture. It's also benefitted hugely from tourism, and the people here seem very relaxed, friendly, and happy. While there's a few temples around, and cows and goats roam the streets, this doesn't seem like the real India, and reminds me of those generic tourist towns found in Asia, a bit like Dali in China. The best thing about here is really chilling on the rooftop terraces and admiring the view.
Heading to Pushkar for the camel fair today, should be a good time. More sketches coming soon!