Located in the heartland of Mumbai, is a ‘powerhouse’ called Dharavi. It squats over 300 acres of what used to be swampland. Called Asia’s largest slum, it even figures on a quiz board game in the US. For years Dharavi has been growing from a small fishing village originally inhabited by the koli fishing community to a sprawling settlement of amazing industry where migrant workers driven out of drought-prone areas in the country, found asylum. Today, its 330,000 inhabitants are a vital work force in the city. The struggle for survival is palpable, the condition’s squalid but the spirit is invincible.

From dawn to dusk, the two large wood-fired ovens are manned by labour from Azamgarh in Uttar Pradesh. They stoke the ovens, kneed the dough, mould it into rolls for Mumbai’s famous bread, pav, or brun pav. The dough is also rolled out thin, cut into strips which are laid on each other, cut into oblong pieces and baked. And you get trays of another Mumbai staple, the delicious, savoury, crumbly, flaky khari biscuit.