There are few cities in our country that have been reimagined in pop culture the way Mumbai has. Bollywood alone had revisited it time and again to establish its status as the city of dreams; one that never sleeps, creating a mirage-of-sorts that has, over the years, compelled people to flock to the Chhatrapati ShivajiMaharaj Terminus. But, Maya Nagari, edited by Shanta Gokhale and Jerry Pinto, takes the road less taken to create a non-uniform image of the metropolis.
Here, Mumbai is stripped off its twinkle; it is deglamourised to reveal how it’s the quotidian that lends the city its character—warmth and hostility alike.
Baburao Bagul’s ‘Woman of the Street’, written originally in Marathi as ‘Vatevarchi’, is an example. Translated into English by Gokhale, it tells the story of Girija, a sex-worker, who receives a telegram with a dreaded message, forcing her to return to her village. But, to make the journey, she needs money. The story ends on a disturbing note, as it reaffirms the relativity of success.
Then, there’s Udayan Thakker’s Gujarati story ‘Pandoba’. In a few paragraphs, the two-page story evocatively questions the act of romanticisation, which really holds little to no value for someone who comes from the working class, and is trying to survive in this cruel city.
In ‘Civic Duty and Physics Practicals’, Malayalam writer Manasi reveals the different experiences one comes across living in a society defined by power equations. Issues of superstition, illegal colonies, corruption, intimidation and violence are explored in a single story where the narrator is struggling, for days, with blaring speakers at a wedding nearby, even as her son tries hard to prepare for his upcoming exams.
Her equally perturbed neighbour, on the other hand, is worried about his soon to be discharged mother, who is supposed to move in with him. Translated by Prema Jayakumar and Nirmala Aravind, the story soon takes a dark turn where power trumps over consideration for fellow human beings. And, the collection has a plethora of such tales, many written by literary greats such as Saadat Hasan Manto, Ismat Chughtai and Ambai to even artists like Bhupen Khakhar.
Each tells a different tale of Mumbai, Bombay, Momoi, Bambai, Manbai and many others. Even as they deglamourise Mumbai, they also portray it as a city built on shared experiences. Books that attempt to paint a portrait of a metro can often be tricky. Selecting stories for the collection is a daunting task, for besides being subjective renditions of authors’ impressions of the city, they also must chronicle its soul—how it has evolved and grown over the years—something that Maya Nagari has successfully achieved.
