Mumbai is a city piled high with clichés. The most annoying among them is the adulatory and unthinkingly overused ‘spirit of Mumbai’. It was probably valid half a century ago, and like others of its ilk, is now past its expiry date. That’s why I was happy that the latest book on the city is by Sidharth Bhatia's Mumbai – A Million Islands. Bhatia has for long schooled himself to become unaffected by awe and unruffled by its opposite. His professional scepticism (he’s a journalist) has also given him a serviceable bullshit detector.
Like the subject itself, the book is a sprawling, multi-layered canvas, as labyrinthine as the lanes of quaint Kotachiwadi. It overlaps many time zones; it is hurried and uneven—profound in places, shallow in others. Like Mumbai, it is messy too (I spotted typos). It embraces contrasts, of course, for those are the ‘islands’ upon which Bhatia has based his book. The proof is in your face. If you get into one of the high-rises zooming skywards at Saath Rasta, one window will overlook the playgrounds of millionaires—the racecourse, the Turf Club and a helipad to boot. Another window in the same room gives you the seamy side of the city, and Arthur Road Jail as the cherry on the falooda. That’s Mumbai.
Bhatia’s fear—a fear shared by others who have written or contemplated about Mumbai—is that the ‘islands’ will one day opt for open war with each other, with the poor saying ‘enough is enough’ and go for the rich man’s jugular. Whether a million mutinies are going to erupt any time soon is a matter for another debate. But let that not distract us from the book at hand.
Bhatia has not spared himself the rigours of research. It’s wide and it’s deep, and it is conducted not just in libraries but on the more revelatory streets of the metropolis. In the course of his intra-city exploration, he turns up nuggets which are unfamiliar even to those who thought they knew the city well.
The book’s initial focus on housing is so intense you begin to wonder if the author has as his deputy a real estate agent who is also a closet Leftist. Soon, however, Bhatia spreads his arms to accommodate other aspects of the city. Off and on, his Leftist sympathies rear their head. We are told that while the iconic Ganpati idol Lalbaugcha Raja (king of Lalbaug) and its accompanying festival grows bigger every year, ‘workers' chawls are getting obliterated as the developers move in.’ Government initiatives which begin with pious proclamations of helping the poor are soon mired in scandal and daylight siphoning of funds. Planning and execution in Mumbai are spasmodic rather than systematic. This is as true of the BDD (Bombay Development Directorate) chawls and the Bombay Port Trust as of Kamathipura—the city’s red-light district which is now slowly losing its lurid hue.
Since there are an armload of books on this city, and more may be on the way, it makes sense to ask if Bhatia’s work uncovers fresh ground. Well, as I said, Mumbai – A Million Islands does add to your sum of knowledge and tells you of the lore behind common landmarks. Next question: Does it say anything different? That’s tough, and I am inclined to pass. Naresh Fernandes, in A City Adrift, says much the same thing, but Bhatia does it with more angst and energy if less elegance. Also, the book comes with an index, making it ideal as a reference. Then there is Suketu Mehta’s Maximum City, which lifted the lid on the underworld and managed to ‘scoop’ an interview with Chhota Shakeel. But, apart from hearing the don in his own voice, there were no sensational revelations in the telephonic interview. And then, Mehta now properly belongs to Manhattan while Bhatia is from amchi Mumbai even from the time it was Bombay.
But if you ask if any of the above books captures Mumbai’s zeitgeist, then none of them qualifies. If you are looking for the soul of the city, you are looking in the wrong direction. I suggest you keep all books aside and sit back and listen to Mohammed Rafi and Majrooh Sultanpuri’s immortal ode—Zare hatke, zara bachke, yeh hai Bambai meri jaan.
Mumbai – A Million Islands
By Sidharth Bhatia
Published by HarperCollins
Price: Rs 599; pages: 301
