If you hear the constant ticking of a sewing machine, the clean cuts of a scissor, a movie playing faintly in the background, and chatter over all of this, you have reached Anil Chawda’s tailoring shop, Khushi Tailor.

Anil is a Gujarati, born and raised in Dharavi. If there was one thing young Anil was passionate about, it was cricket- the love of almost every Indian’s life. Every day of his entire childhood, he would go play cricket with his friends at Holi Maidan (a ground in Dharavi Koliwada). The memory of those golden days brings a smile on his face as he narrates them to me.

“Arey main roj Holi Maidan mein cricket khelta tha. Lekin abhi time kiske paas hai…”

“I used to play cricket in Holi Maidan everyday. But now who has that kind of time…”

But, as they say, all good things come to an end. With adulthood came responsibilities, and for Anil, that meant taking over his family business. The business was started by his grandfather decades ago, who not only trained Anil’s father, but also taught a young Anil how to cut and sew. Anil had a liking for it since then. As a child, he used to watch the two of them work. He calls them a ‘family of darjis (tailors).’

Today, he has two shops, one karkhaana (workshop) and a 3 BHK house in Dharavi. He has 10 workers working under him, and around 700 loyal customers!

But maintaining this success requires a lot of hard work. There are certain neighbourhoods in Mumbai that are known for their incredible variety of fabrics sold at wholesale rate, and tailors from all over the city go there to get the best stock. Masjid Bandar is one such neighbourhood. Anil buys the fabric and other raw material required to make his intricate pieces from there, and gets it transported to his workshop. He too goes there on his bike, because he is very particular about the selection of fabrics- the quality, variety, colours, and prefers to do it himself instead of outsourcing it. Mondays, the only time his shop remains closed, are reserved for this, and if he’s lucky, a party and a couple of beers too! The rest of the week, he is constantly working, his loyal workers by his side, completing one order after another. He says that at the moment, intricate blouses with stones and embellishments are in high demand and are also fun to make. But because most of his workers have gone on their annual vacation, he hasn’t been taking those orders, since it takes a lot of time, effort and manpower to make them. Instead, they have been making dresses. The workers will return from vacation in a couple of days, he tells me, since their children’s schools will start by mid-June. That’s when he'll be able to start taking blouse orders again, and work will be in full swing.

When I asked if I could see one of these blouses, or maybe a picture, he said:

“Time nahi reheta hain photo-voto nikal ne ke liye. Order bante hi customer aake leke jata hai.”

“We don’t have the time to take pictures and all. When an order is complete, the customer comes and takes it; they don’t leave it here.”

Anil enjoys his work, and is proud that he has taken forward the business his grandfather built all those years ago. He has reached a point in his life where he just wants to work, make money, and live comfortably. He aims to expand his business, and open his own clothing store, in about 2 years. He wants to buy readymade blouses and pieces, and sell them, here, in Dharavi, in a large shop. He is confident he’ll do it in 2 years.

“Do saal mey mujhe kapde beychney hain; bahar se laake yaha bade dukan mey blouse wagera beychna hai. Ho jayega, do saal mey karna hi hain mujhe, who Dadar mein Matching Centre hain na, waise.”

“In about 2 years, I want to start selling clothes. I want to buy clothes from outside and sell them here (in Dharavi), when I open a big shop. It’ll happen; in 2 years I’m definitely going to do it. You know ‘Matching Centre’ in Dadar? Yeah, just like that.”

To keep himself entertained while working, he plays shows and movies on his phone, and watches it simultaneously as he cuts and sews. When I visited him the first time, I noticed much later that he had propped up his phone against the wall behind a mountain of cloth, and was watching Dhurandhar, while working and also chatting with me! That’s when I realised that he’s quite the multitasker.

In his work-life balance, he has also managed to include his childhood passion - cricket. Adulthood managed to take Anil out of cricket, but not cricket out of Anil, because where there is a will, there surely is a way. And Anil found it.

His busy schedule doesn’t let him play cricket. So instead, he bets on it! He has been in the betting game for about 15-20 years now. There is a twinkle in his eye as he tells me about his betting experiences. There are many places where one can physically go and place bets, among friends, acquaintances and neighbours. He also places bets on Dream11, an Indian fantasy sports app. Just recently, he won INR 1 lakh in IPL 2026, after betting on the Gujarat Titans! As a proud Mumbaikar, when I asked him why he doesn’t support Mumbai and bet on it, he laughed and said that he supports Gujarat because he's a Gujrati, and besides, the way Mumbai has been playing recently is quite disappointing.

I laughed sheepishly, because there was no denying that!

But then he said something surprising- that this was his last season of betting! He had been keeping it a secret from his family, especially his wife, who didn’t approve of it. But he recently announced to his wife that he is quitting.

Speaking of the Dharavi Redevelopment Project, Anil was very confident that it would happen by 2030. He says that the implications of the project on him and his neighbours could be varied, since it all depends on their current ownership of ‘rooms’. He claims that he will benefit if it were to happen, because he has 3 ‘rooms’ (the two shops and the karkhaana) and a 3 BHK house. In the redevelopment project, those who own ground and first floors will be compensated. That is why, according to Anil, those who have invested heavily in building floors one on top of another will not get the expected returns from the developer, and they have a lot to lose.

“Ameer log ek kamre pey paanch-chhey mala khada karte hain...kaise chalega? Dharavi mey jo ameer hai unka nuksaan hoga, aur jo gareeb hai unka fayda hoga.”

“The rich persons of Dharavi build 5-6 floors above the one small room they own…how is that fair? If the redevelopment happens, the rich will suffer and the poor will benefit.”

The future may be away, but Anil has already envisioned it for himself. And perhaps that is who Anil Chawda is: someone who keeps moving forward. One shop became two, and two years from now, a tailor's workshop will become a clothing store. He has been building on what already exists, layer by layer, the way Dharavi itself always has. The machine keeps ticking, the orders keep coming, and Anil, phone propped up, scissors in hand, keeps going.

Anil’s shop will complete 20 years in 2027, the fruit of his labour and his amazing Gujarati business acumen!