Contents
Acknowledgements ix
Introduction Urban Ethnography in the Global Interregnum / Lisa Bjorkman 1
Part I Development / Rachel Sturman 47
1. Bunty Singh: Builder of Dreams / Lalitha Kamath 59
2. Imran: Housing Contractor / Tobias Baitsch 68
3. Dalpat: Manager of Services / Lisa Bjorkman 78
4. Mehmoodbhai: Toilet Operator / Prasad Khanolkar 87
5. Kaushal: Land Agglomerator / Llerena Guiu Searle 95
6. Janu: Sister-Supervisor of Migrant Construction Workers / Uday Chandra 101
Part II Property / Lisa Bjorkman 109
7. Dr. K: Middle-Class Social-worker / Yaffa Truelove 121
8. Ashok Ravat: Shivaji Park's Sentinel / Lalit Vachani 128
9. Shazia: Proof Maker / Sangeeta Banerji 137
10. Nirmala: Kamathipura's Gatekeeper 145
Ratoola Kundu
11. Farhad: 'Sue Maker' / Leilah Vevaina 154
Part III Business / Tarini Bedi 163
12. Ramita: Surrogacy Agent / Daisy Deomampo 175
13. Muhammad: Revalorizer of e-waste / Aneri Taskar 182
14. Deepak: Making Mumbai (in China) / Ka-Kin Cheuk 191
15. Lubaina: Framing 'Development' / Lubaina Rangwala 199
16. Shankar: Delivering Authenticity / Ken Kuroda 208
17. Manal-Muna: Cooking up Value / Tarini Bedi 216
18. Ramji: Business Energizer / Lisa Bjorkman 224
Part IV Difference / Anjali Arondekar 233
19. Bhimsen Gaikwad: Singer of Justice / Shailaja Paik 243
20. Sultan: Image Manager / David Strohl 253
21. Raj: Carting Cosmopolitanism / Maura Finkelstein 262
22. Laxmi: Dealer in Emotion / R. Swaminathan 270
23. Dharmsey: Assembler of Tradition / Edward Simpson 278
24. Dalvi: Speaker of Cities / Gautam Pemmaraju 286
Part V Publics / Lisa Björkman and Michael Collins 297
25. Shashi: Dot Connector / Rohan Shivkumar 307
26. Anil Prakash: Amplifier of Cinema-Industrial Connection / Kathryn Hardy 315
27. Gauravpant Mishra: Crowd-Maker / Sarthak Bagchi 322
28. Srinivasan: Kingmaker / Simon Chauchard 329
29. Madhu: Door Opener / Bhushan Koregaonkar 337
30. Poornima: Designing Relations / Ajay Gandhi 347
Part VI Truth / Lisa Bjorkman 355
31. Rajani Pandit: Detector of Truths / Srimati Basu 367
32. Afzal Taximan: Rumour Navigator / Sahana Udupa 378
33. Pawan: Prison Master / Atreyee Sen 384
34. Sujit: Master Communicator / Annelies Kusters 391
35. Chadda: Report Maker / Prasad Shetty and Rupali Gupte 401
36. Prakash: Data Entrepreneur / Amita Bhide 405
Conclusion Other Places, Other Times 414
Lisa Mitchell
Glossary 425
About the Contributors 437
Index 441