10 of the best books set in mumbai _ by the guardian
TRANSCRIPT
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10 of the best books set in MumbaiMumbai's extraordinary colour, energy and humanity are captured
in some of the most celebrated writing of the past three decades.
Malcolm Burgess, publisher of the City-Pick series, selects his
favourite stories and essays set in the city
• As featured in the Mumbai city guide
• Browse our Mumbai interactive for top tips
If you have a favourite novel, essay or other piece of writing
on Mumbai, please share it by leaving a comment
Malcolm Burgess
guardian.co.uk, Thursday 1 March 2012 10.00 GMT
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Salman Rushdie, The Moor's Last Sigh, 1995
The beautifully written but also very funny novel of a vanishing Mumbai.
"Once a year, my mother Aurora Zogoiby liked to dance higher than the
gods. Once a year the gods came to Chowpatty Beach to bathe in the filthy
sea: fat-bellied idols by the thousand, papier-mâché effigies of the elephant-
headed deity Ganesha or Ganpati Bappa, swarming towards the water
astride papier-mâché rats – for Indian rats, as we know, carry gods as well
as plagues … There were, in addition, many Dancing Ganeshas, and it was
these wiggle-hipped Ganpatis, love-handled and plump of gut, against
whom Aurora competed, setting her profane gyrations against the jolly
jiving of the much-replicated god."
• Chowpatty Beach
Gregory David Roberts, Shantaram, 2003
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The compelling autobiographical novel of an Australian criminal who escapes to a new
life in Mumbai.
"The first thing I noticed about Bombay, on that first day, was the smell of
the different air … it's the smell of gods, demons, empires and civilisations
in resurrection and decay. It's the blue skin-smell of the sea, no matter
where you are in the Island City, and the blood-metal smell of machines. It
smells of the stir and sleep and waste of sixty million animals, more than
half of them human and rats … It smells of ten thousand restaurants, five
thousand temples, shrines, churches and mosques, and of a hundred
bazaars devoted exclusively to perfumes, spices, incense and freshly cut
flowers."
• Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport
Rohinton Mistry, Family Matters, 2002
The moving story of a troubled Mumbai family, set against the backdrop of the city.
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"In the flower stall two men sat like musicians, weaving strands of
marigold, garlands of jasmine and lily, and rose, their fingers picking,
plucking, knotting, playing a floral melody. Kariman imagined the progress
of the works they performed: to supplicate deities in temples, honour the
photo-frames of someone's ancestors, adorn the hair of wives and mothers
and daughters.
The bhel puri stall was a sculptured landscape, with its golden pyramid of
sev, the little snow mountains of mumra, hillocks of puris, and, in among
their valleys, in aluminium containers, pools of green and brown and red
chutneys …
It was all as magical as a circus, felt Kariman, and reassuring, like a magic
show."
• Marine Lines
Murzban F Shroff, Breathless in Bombay, 2009
Fourteen brilliant stories set in contemporary Mumbai – shortlisted for the 2009
Commonwealth Writers' Prize.
"To walk along the streets of Colaba and to be wooed by peddlers of all
trades, all motives, always involves me with a measure of excitement … To
sit in Café Leopold and watch the world go by; and to sit on the parapet at
Apollo Bunder and see the sail boats tossed on the coruscating waters; to
walk past Jehangir Art Gallery and see the drug addicts huddled over their
foil … to walk along the Gothic colonnades of the Ballard Estate and relive
the solidarity of a lost era of architecture; to walk along Marine Drive and
see the couples, their backs to the city, their heads huddled, a universal sun
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casting its light on them."
• Marine Drive
Suketu Mehta, Maximum City: Bombay Lost and
Found, 2004
Photograph: Public
domain/David Pearson/Rex Features
The definitive story of modern Mumbai in all its diversity and complexity.
"The Gateway of India, a domed arch of yellow basalt surrounded by four
turrets, was built in Bombay in 1927 to commemorate the arrival, sixteen
years earlier, of the British king, George V; instead, it marked his
permanent exit. In 1947, the British left their Empire under this same arch,
the last of their troops marching mournfully to the last of their ships …
Cities are gateways; to money, to position, to dreams and devils. A migrant
from Bihar might one day get to America; but first he needs a spell in the
boot camp of the west: Bombay, the acclimatisation station."
• The Gateway of India
Jerry Pinto and Naresh Fernandes (eds.),
Bombay, meri jaan, 2003
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A wonderfully eclectic collection of essays on all things Mumbai.
"Asad, of all people, has seen humanity at its worst. I asked him if he felt
pessimistic about the human race. 'Not at all,' he replied. 'Look at all the
hands from the trains.'
If you are late for work in Bombay, and reach the station just as the train is
leaving the platform, you can run up to the packed compartments and you
will find many hands stretching out to grab you on board, unfolding
outward from the train like petals. As you run alongside you will be picked
up, and some tiny space will be made for your feet on the edge of the open
doorway. The rest is up to you ...
And at the moment of contact, they do not know if the hand that is reaching
theirs belongs to a Hindu or Muslim or Christian or Brahmin or
untouchable, or whether you were born in the city or arrived only this
morning, or whether you live in Malabar Hill or Jogeshwari; whether you
are from Bombay or Mumbai or New York. All they know is that you're
trying to get to the city of gold, and that's enough. Come on board, they say.
We'll adjust."
• Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus
Vikram Chandra, Love and Longing in Bombay,
1997
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Photograph: Public
domain/Abraham Nowitz
Five haunting tales set in modern Mumbai and India.
"Ramani has been to Bandra that day; and he was telling them about a
bungalow on the seafront. It was one of those old three-storied houses with
balconies that ran all the way around, set in the middle of towering
apartment buildings, and it had been empty as far back as anyone could
remember …
'They say it's unsellable,' said Ramani. 'They say a Gujarati seth bought it
and died within the month. Nobody'll buy it. Bad place.'
'What nonsense,' I said. 'These are all family property disputes. The cases
drag on for years and years in courts, and the houses lie vacant because no
one will let anyone else live in them.'
I spoke at length about superstition and ignorance and the state of our
benighted nation, in which educated men and women believed in banshees
and ghosts. 'Even in the information age we will never be free,' I said."
• Bandra
Kamala Ganesh, Usha Thakkar, Gita Chadha, Zero
Point Bombay: In and Around Horniman Circle,
2008
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Horniman Circle is both the birthplace of the city and still a centre of business life –
both celebrated in 21 fascinating essays.
"From the iconic Strand Book Stall to the newly refurbished The Bookpoint,
Horniman Circle must boast the biggest number of book stores anywhere in
the country. The idea of opening a book shop came to TN Shanbhag, the
owner of the Strand Book Stall, during a screening at the Strand Cinema.
Having been humiliated in a reputed book store of the time for touching a
book, the young Shanbhag wanted to start a book store where the access to
Saraswati – the goddess of knowledge, music, arts and science – would not
be restricted to the elite, but would be open to a wider section of the people.
Shanbhag approached Keki Mody, the owner of the Strand Cinema, with his
idea, and that is how the Strand Book Stall came into being on the premises
of the cinema hall."
• Horniman Circle
Kiran Nagarkar, Ravan & Eddie, 1994
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From one of India's most popular novelists, a hugely entertaining novel that opens up
the world of the city's sprawling chawls, or tenement blocks.
"Life in the chawls is a perpetual melodrama in itself. Large, mostly
unhappy middle-class families packed in one building – not by choice, of
course. Hence, there's a lot of scope for fights and quarrels over the
slightest of things. Water is not a matter of quarrels but fully-fledged war. It
turns housewives into warriors and water containers into missiles and
cannons. Like in a small village, everyone knows everything about everyone
else ... the prime mover is water. You snapped out of anaesthesia,
interrupted coitus, stopped your prayers, postponed your son's
engagement, developed incontinence, took casual leave to go down and
stand at the common tap … cancelled going to church because water,
present and absent, is more powerful than the Almighty."
• Mazagaon
Salman Rushdie, Midnight's Children, 1981
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The epic story of Indian identity is also a glorious celebration of Mumbai itself.
"The Pioneer Cafe was not much when compared to the Gaylords and
Kwalitys of the city's more glamorous parts; a real rutputty joint, with
painted boards proclaiming LOVELY LASSI and FUNTABULOUS FALOODA
and BHEL-PURI BOMBAY FASHION, with film playback music blaring out
from a cheap radio by the cash-till, a long, narrow, greeny room lit by
flickering neon, a forbidding world in which broken-toothed men sat at
reccine-covered tables with crumpled cards and expressionless eyes."
• Churchgate
• Malcolm Burgess is the publisher of Oxygen Books' city-pick series,
featuring some of the best-ever writing on favourite world cities
Readers’ tips
Mumbai: Aer Bar, Mumbai
10 of the best books set in Mumbai | Travel | guardian.co.uk http://www.guardian.co.uk/travel/2012/mar/01/top-10-books-mumbai-ind...
10 of 11 6/19/2013 10:49 PM
The most wonderful rooftop bar with a stunning panorama of the city skyline, the
racetrack, ocean, and Haji Ali mosque. Aer Bar attracts a glamorous clientele…
Posted by buck775 26 Feb 2013
Mumbai: Aer Bar
Aer Bar is a rooftop bar with the most amazing panoramic views of Mumbai: its
skyscrapers, racetrack, ocean and Haji Ali mosque.
Posted by buck775 25 Feb 2013
Mumbai: Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (formerly Victoria Terminus)
Like an ornate old world cathedral, this monumental representation of Gothic-revival
architecture—complete with turrets, lancet windows, gables, high
Posted by LizCleere 18 May 2012
Mumbai: Prithvi Theatre
Mumbai is pretty theatrical itself, but I discovered the Prithvi when staying with a
friend in the suburb of Juhu. It's a small but friendly theatre that…
Posted by RhiHug 27 Sep 2011
Show all 35 readers' tips | Send us a tip
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