THERE IS NOTHING DIGITAL ABOUT THIS HUMAN DOLLARS SHARING ECONOMY!

The “sharing economy” describes a type of business built on the sharing of resources — allowing customers to access goods and services when needed. Think startups like Airbnb,Uber,Bla bla car etc., etc. This increasing legitimacy is reflected in the more polished terms used to describe the phenomenon like peer-to-peer (P2P) networks, collaborative consumption or the access economy.

Having spent considerable amount of time growing up in Mumbai chawls and still call it a home away from home, A chawl — roughly translated from Marathi language,as room fronted by a corridor — is a linear or C-shaped building of one or two room housing units that share a common balcony.Chawls are typically two or three-storied with a common toilet and washing area on the ground floor. A usual kholi consists of one room, which functions as a living and sleeping area and usually comes with a small mori for a faucet. Often there is a kitchen that serves as a bedroom for another couple. The scarcity of working-class housing meant that very frequently however multiple households were shared a single kholi.

In my particular case, it is the BDD chawls located in the heart of Mumbai, which are more than 100 odd years old, constructed by the British sometime in 1922 for public department workers. However growing up, I was always under the illusion of it being built as some sort of a jail in pre independence era!

Now recently when I read an article, the headline screaming of Chinese sharing economy valued at some trillions of yuan, where everything from sharing taxis to food and rooms have individually become billion dollars businesses, I wonder if the founders of the uber’s and air bnb’s must have lived in fantasy in some of the chawls for some inspiration, somewhat like Mr. Zuckerberg who admitted to be enlightened on a India trip he took for some vision inspiration for Facebook!

Well the point I am trying to make is that long before I discovered and realized the beauty of the sharing economy startups and businesses, the chawls in Mumbai were and still are a wonderful example of the sharing economy.

Food tech was like how I remember, on demand the ever smiling Mrs.Bapat’s would share a bowl of her Maharashtrian aamti(Maharashtrian lentil curry delicacy)every other day in exchange of our our korirutti(manglorean chicken curry with rice crispies) or idlis, or the kheer and biryani being shared by the meat loving Qureshi’s,and how our immediate neighbor, the Mishra’s used our fridge to stock up their perishables in return for a halwa(north indian dessert)or sheera now and then.ofcourse the religious festivities and family functions of all communities were shared and celebrated in great fervor too..

Ridesharing was courtesy the ever accommodating Kadams having the only car back then, would share a ride with anybody lucky enough to grab a seat while running to work, likewise the ones who had motorcycles, sharing of the limited resources of water of course had its own share of commotion and deals were struck for the daily rights to receive more, some women almost came to blows once a while..

Airbnb was like hosting the common spaces in the passageway or pillowbook the favorite sleeping spots on tar surfaced terraces,ofcourse even money was shared in the form of BCs(trust based form of money collection by individuals in a group and distributed among themselves according to ones priority and needs)and often people lent money like the trendy peer to peer sharing!

Now dating and sharing of girlfriends was a different ball game all together, there was none of the tinder interfaces and swiping right terminology, window glances and hand signals came to the rescue more often or not, and of course innocent young children often doubled up as on demand courier services!

Sharing of resources and access to stuff came naturally to most living in chawls and there was nothing digital about it!

Of course today, whether it is a monetary or social paradigm shift, access economy is considered to be one of “10 Ideas That Will Change the World.” I certainly agree.