Ajanta with its drop-dead frescoes – from some 2500 years ago was like a fashion-sutra in stone – documenting jewellery, accessories, make-up, hairstyles and costumes – while capturing the narratives of the many lives of Buddha.

March 24th, India went into a 21 day lock down to maintain social distancing. How is this top down mandate being followed by people living in high density settlements? Our collaborators, friends and colleagues have been updating us about the ground realities.

From a small Italian village, to a city like Milan, to a metroplis like Chile and finally to Dharavi, Francesco finds similarities and differences among the different scales.of habitats. 

We at urbz researched the circumstances in Dharavi from April to November. We now present a collection of four pandemic-focused articles, fifteen Dharavi Weekly issues, and five Dharavi Fortnightly issues.