Every year the mill district of Mumbai adds more swanky glass buildings, more traffic, more people. Each new, shiny apartment squeezes out an old chawl, making the lives of its dwellers that much smaller, less important and more sombre. One such creaking sprawl in the heart of Parel is Vani chawl. Displayed prominently is a notice warning the building is unsafe. A dark wooden stairway—a couple of missing steps are supported by bamboos—leads to the one-room second-floor house of Dayanand Bhadvankar, which is home to his family of five. Dayanand hasn’t stepped out of this room for six years—he has been in bed with a broken spine, a result of his heroics in the dangerous Dahi Handi festival during Janmashtami.