”When I was about eight my father abandoned us and that time I was very sad and in spite of telling him to come back he didn’t. He married again and we all felt broken” – Hina

”One time I was sad was when my uncles hit my father and told him that don’t live here because he used to drink alcohol. I missed him a lot. When I remember his name I used to meet him. I have not gone there for two months because I never remember” – Pankaj

”I have stopped going to school because my parents think that I have become big” – Chandrakala

”In my community men beat wives including children. The wives are illiterate and so don’t go to police station and file a complaint because they are under their husbands pressure. The husbands threaten them with their fists so that they don’t go to the police” – Nasir

”The most important thing in my life is my parents’ happiness because my happiness is in their happiness. The most important thing in my life is that my parents’ dream because I am their son and they don’t have another son so I have to fulfill their dream. Their dream is to have a nice home like a flat.”– Shyam

”My parents are ill and have a lot of tension of money.” – Ravi

”A problem we face in our community is that certain members are jealous at someone else’s success. They do not compliment other people when they achieve something” – Rita

”When someone is throwing rubbish on the road and we tell them not to throw on the road they say that is this your father’s road then we don’t know what to say and move away quietly” – Ravi

”I don’t like it when my parents spit on the road because they have got an educated child at home who tries to change their habit of spitting and makes them understand. I myself don’t do that. I used to but now I don’t because I have come to know why we shouldn’t do that”  – Ajay

“ I have water for 24 hours but my kid’s water in the Cuffe Parade community taps comes only from12:00-1:00. There are only 4-6 public toilets for a population over 1000 people.” – Nikki Didi

”I need to be independent because my parents don’t have work and I have to work and give the money to my mother to cook food for my family because I am not sure that they will earn money everyday.”– Ajay

“As I walk through crowded lanes people welcome me, ‘Didi, Didi’. I have never felt so much love, warmth and importance as I do here. Everyone leaves their chores to greet me. They welcome me into 6 feet by 6 feet homes with no ventilation and damp floors. If you look around, you can see the whole world concealed in one room.” – Deba Didi

”In my life, my mother is important because she is the only one who works for me. She can work very hard even a man cannot do that.”– Jeetendra

”Saturday is my special day because I get extra food and that day my father gets his salary” – Shakila

”In my summer vacations I used to work at my uncles shop selling toys. I love to bargain and earn money. When a foreigner used to come I used to sell the toy for Rs. 50. otherwise I used to sell fro Rs. 20. sometimes the police used to come and take money from me. Sometimes the municipality used to come and take my shop also.” – Ajay

”When my parents fight I feel like hating God why I got this father who always drinks” – Jeetendra

”My mother died and then my brother married again. I was happy another lady came into my life. Then she and my brother left me to live in Malad.” – Pramod

”Chandan Nagar does not have electricity and other civic amenities. Most of the people are recent migrants and work either as daily laborers or collect scrap. Very few of them have ration and voting cards and the children have no birth certificates. Not only awareness of education but hygiene and cleanliness is also lacking.” – Kanchan Didi

”When my father hits my mother, it upsets me and I feel like going away from them for some days and then they will never fight because they will think that because we fight our son had to leave the house.” – Ajay

”There are drug addicts because of whom the police come and hit us and ask us who sells drugs. If we don’t tell them, sometimes they throw us in jail for some days.” – Ajay

”People should say about my life that he used to help the poor when their home got broken. He used to rebuild their house.” – Pankaj

”People tease others. If someone is mad the people of our community, they make them dance and they make fun of them.”– Jeetendra

”Physical conditions are difficult. “The communities are filled with clusters of houses and each family has many members; together they all share a small room. They share a common toilet between the houses and the drains are all open. Their water comes from a common tap.” “The first thing that hits one is the stench of the big gutter. I wonder how the families that live just 6 feet away, bear it and live there. I fail to understand how they cope with the mosquitoes and other pests that must infest the area. But they do!”– Jill Didi

”I did not go to school because when my mother was alive she told me that you have to stop studying andstart cleaning the bus. From that day I stop studying and I make money for mother”– Nazir

”A time I was very happy when I taught my mother how to write her name in English. She got it and I saw a different kind of happiness. My happiness is my mother’s happiness.” – Kavita

“Our community doesn’t seem a clean place. It is always littered. We don’t have a proper bathroom and toilet place. In the rainy season it becomes very difficult as the roofs and walls leak. But even then I love my community because this is where I have been and lived for many years.” – Pooja