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Podcast: New Books in South Asian Studies
Episode: Saumya Roy, "Mountain Tales: Love and Loss in the Municipality of Castaway Belongings" (Profile Books, 2021)
Description: In 2016, the city of Mumbai was blanketed in toxic smog. The source? Fires at the nearby dumping ground of Deonar: the country’s oldest. The Deonar fire became an embarrassment for Mumbai, coming right before an international expo meant to announce the city to international investors and business.Law enforcement immediately blamed scrap dealers who lived alongside the landfill. The pickers are men and women–poor, sometimes very young–who comb the mountain for waste that can be resold: metal, plastic, cloth and, if they’re lucky, gold and jewelry.Saumya Roy’s Mountain Tales: Love and Lo...