Diwali Decorations
This chawl, normally adorned only by draying clothes, takes a new look during the Diwali, the Festival of Lights…it is adorned by beautiful lanterns in front of each tenement.....

In the past these women helped their families by running a “Khanawal” a home enterprise. They cooked for those mill workers who were living alone in the chawls. Today with closing of the mills these women end up providing food to strangers on the road side….

Playmates & Friends
Girangaonkars brought along with them their indigenous cultures from everywhere. This decorated bull, a integral of part of their life in the village, visits Girangaon once a year… helping them to take a nostalgic trip down the memory lane…

Chawls
The area in which the workers and their families settled, were close to the mills. Together they came to be known as Girangaon, the Village of the Mills.
Due to housing demands from the milk workers, the Bombay Development District (BDD) and Bombay Improvement Trust (BIT) built rows of low cost houses in Girangaon. These 1-2 stories high, single room tenements with a common narrow corridor, and a block of shared toilets situated at the end of the corridor came to be known as “Chawls”.
A group of 3 to 4 Chawl buildings were usually built around a central courtyard which served as an open space for sports, family celebrations, weddings and festivals. This congested tenement living created a “Chawl Culture” based upon a unique, shared lifestyle and collective identity. Today it is being replaced by the “Mall Culture”

Powada, Local Art Form

Note: We have full perfomances of these art forms. If you want to see these perfomances then contact to PUKAR office.

Naman, Local Art Form

Bhoot Bangala (Ghost Bungalow)
The actual name of Bhoot Bangala is Chhapara Chawl. The reason it has taken on the colloquial term of Bhoot Bangala is because the chawl has been abandoned for the last 20 years. The chawl was sold to a builder for redevelopment however, things went wrong and the builder and owner of the chawl are now disputing the matter in court.