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ChawlIn the period up to the 1980s, Chawls were buildings occupied by middle class families in parts of India. They typically consisted of 4 to 5 stories with about 10 to 20 tenements on each floor. The tenements or "kholi"s as they were called had one living-cum-bed-cum-all purpose room and a kitchen that served as the dining room, doubling at night as a bedroom for a newly married couple (who got the privilege of having, at least for a period, a special and separate bedroom). Rents were often Rs. 40 per month or even lower. Families on a floor had to share a common block of latrines, each block comprising typically 4 to 5 latrines. However, each family, or group of unrelated persons, endeavoured to have their own bathroom in their tenement. On the one hand, people living in a chawl had little privacy since the most trivial happenings in one home constituted an item of public news that interested all the others. On the other hand, people of a particular chawl were able to share with other inhabitants an atmosphere of intimacy and mutual support. No one felt lonely and it was as if the entire chawl formed a big family. Though mostly belonging to the lower economic stratum, the inhabitants of a chawl were fiercely proud of their chawl and its history.
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