Prasad Shetty

How to ask a question?

The following questions were written by different students after walking through the streets of Mumbai. These are not questions to be answered, but openings to dwell within—through research, drawing, writing, or making. To interrogate not only the city, but also oneself

Perceptions - What produces fear in a space—the absence of light, or the presence of imagination? Why does darkness feel heavy, while light feels reassuring? When a street empties out, what fills the void—silence, or projection? Why does silence intensify tension more than noise ever does? Are shadows unsettling because of what they hide, or what we invent within them? Does a space become unsafe, or do we learn to perceive it as such? Is alertness a response to real danger, or to unfamiliar conditions?


Body - How do repeated encounters with discomfort turn into indifference? What do we learn to ignore in order to continue moving through the city? Is disgust a natural response, or a culturally conditioned one? Where do our thresholds for dirt, noise, and pollution come from? Does the body adapt to the city, or does it quietly defend itself against it? When we walk past what disturbs us, what part of ourselves are we leaving behind?

Constructed Urban - Why is “nature” experienced as peaceful, while the urban is felt as chaotic? Is this distinction real, or produced through cultural narratives? What forms of order make a space feel calm—and for whom?

Ownership - Who decides what belongs to whom in a shared city? Why is ownership our first instinct in encountering space? What responsibilities accompany occupation—of land, of air, of light? When we leave behind waste, do we also abandon responsibility? Is indifference a personal failure, or a collective condition?

Inequality - Who performs the labour that sustains urban life, and why them? How do caste and class continue to script who cleans and who consumes? Is this division naturalised through habit, or enforced through power? What does it mean to feel discomfort at this labour—guilt, empathy, or complicity? Who benefits from the persistence of these hierarchies?


Power - Who has the right to light, air, and silence in the city? How do new developments redistribute these invisible resources? Can one building’s gain become another’s permanent shadow? What would fairness look like in the shaping of urban form? Do those who build the city also bear responsibility for its consequences?

Self - How does my lifestyle shape my perception of the city—and of others? Why do I value my own body and life over those of others? Am I grateful for what I have, or simply accustomed to it? What does it mean to coexist with others in a shared but unequal world?