It’s a wet and windy night in the city of Mumbai. Away from all the glitz and glamour in the commercial capital is a hellish life on the streets; of begging and cringing with no self-respect. It is the Mumbai of the hard-working poor, and the Mumbai of the aspiring migrant, with his fierce drive for survival and self-improvement, the Mumbai of small enterprise, the Mumbai of cottage industries, the Mumbai of poor yet strong women, running entire households on the strength of their income from making papads. Every morning, these women put food on the table, braid their daughters’ hair, and send them to schools. They have hope for the future but this is the Mumbai of dreams.

On a wet wintry night in November in a dark old gym on the corner of a poor shantytown in Mumbai. The sign on the window reads, “The fight is won or lost far away from witnesses, behind the lines, in the gym. Champions are made here.” Over the door hangs an old sign blowing in the wind reading Mangal’s gym. Inside a 12-year-old boy sweeps the floor after an end to the day’s proceedings.

The Butterfly Will Always Float tells the tale of twelve-year-old Johnny, growing up in the slums of Mumbai whose father left when he was a kid and mother is a drug addict. He is overweight and has a speech impairment making it difficult for him to communicate with others. By day he attends the local municipality school in one of the most deprived areas in Mumbai and by night he is a helping hand at Mangal’s gym.

Mohammed Shahzad Aslam

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