Non-PRO Hindi to English Art/Literary Poetry & Literature

there are two situations the word is used - both in kalimpong:

1) (this is the continuation where biju is robbed)
Biju began to quake, and fumbling, tripping, he took off the last items of clothing, stood in his white underpants.
By this time, dogs from all over the busti had arrived galloping. They were battered and balding from fights and disease, but they, like their masters, had the air of outlaws. They surrounded Biju with gangster swagger, tails curved up over them like flags, growling and barking.
Children and women peered from the shadows.
“Let me go,” he begged.

2) She walked home very slowly, sick, sick. The mist was thickening, smoke adding to the dusk and the vapor. The smell of potatoes cooking came from busti houses all along the way, a smell that would surely connote comfort to souls across the world, but that couldn’t comfort her...

both contexts refer to a number of houses/huts along the road, and it's not hard to infer they are rather poor shacks