India, Oct. 5 -- An unnamed hill which can be seen beyond a network of high rises from artist Atul Dodiya's spacious seventh floor studio in Ghatkopar, it is believed, formed the backdrop of Raja Ravi Varma's 'Shakuntala'. The hill at that time was not covered with slum colonies as it is now. Dodiya, 66, grew up in this north-eastern suburb of Mumbai at a time when he and his friends would play hide-and-seek criss-crossing its east and west. It is in a chawl here, which housed 18 Gujarati and Maharashtrian families, that the idea of community was imbued in him.

Over six decades later, the well-travelled artist, who by his own admission "can afford to live anywhere today", chooses to live in the same neighbourhood, which has since metamor...