This anthology of 18 short stories joins the canon of other books on ‘the only city’, as Khushwant Singh once called Bombay. Edited by Anindita Ghose, The Only City has contributions by a diverse and exciting mix of writers, names well-known and relatively unknown.
We see the city—challenging, impersonal, complex, careworn, unforgiving, complicated—through the individual experiences of those who live here. In the palimpsest of writings on Mumbai that was Bombay, it is always the city itself that takes centre stage, and the dedication underlines that: For the fools who leave, / But more for the fools who return.
Life seems to be a constant hustle for the denizens of Mumbai, a hustle just to survive or, propelled by a desperation to escape their circumstances, to make good their future lives. For the aspiring actress in Diksha Basu’s Bollywood, Baby, the desire to make it in tinsel-town dictates her actions and the compromises she makes, as it does for all those who knock on the doors of the film industry every day. The nurse in Tejaswini Apte-Rahm’s Nurse Shanti and the maid in The Girls of Visty Villa by Namita Devidayal want to escape their squalid circumstances, and this leads them to behave in ways wherein some lines are crossed. And of course, there is a building society story that has us smiling with amusement as well as flinching at the protagonist’s behaviour; though rendered humorously by Kersi Khambatta, the story makes an important point, that those wielding power who act out their prejudices can be a challenge to those trapped in those spaces. The tone in these stories is not judgemental; we are merely presented with the cause and effect that come into play under the circumstances.
Elsewhere, the writers turn their gaze on the vulnerabilities of people who are caught up in the push and pull of living in this big city where wanting to belong and riding on aspirations play a big part. In the ironically titled Normal Neighbours by Anindita Ghose, a couple finds themselves in an uncomfortable situation, escape from which seems optional but could render them outcasts. In Prayaag Akbar’s Hoodbhoy House, a couple resorts to using their daughter to strengthen their personal and professional network. And in Dharini Bhaskar’s Silver Clouds, the words dance around reality as the main character slowly reclaims her true feelings, at times wondering if she was in love with a man or if she was in love with the idea of Bombay when she was with that man.
The inequity is woven neatly but starkly into a few stories. Even as an aspiring actress pays an indecent sum for a suffocatingly small space which is actually the servants’ quarter, the big bungalow Visty Villa is home to an old Parsi lady and her two life-size dolls. And in the striking short story Two Bi Two by Prathyush Parasuraman, the lack of space and privacy results in an intimate act taking place in public.
Lindsay Pereira’s excellent story Strays has Bombay baring its fangs to the inhabitants on the lowest rung. The struggle to survive is unrelentingly hard as the city renders itself vulnerable when it treats the poorest as disposable goods. It is a timely, urgent story, as is Jeet Thayil’s dystopian tale Your Meat in My Hands.
All the stories carry a quantum of sadness and the underlying sentiment is an unacknowledged but deeply felt love for Bombay. The distinctive photographs by Chirodeep Chaudhuri interspersed with the stories act as effective counterpoint. The reader’s eye stops at each of these snapshots, only to return to it later, seeking more details. The first story has ‘Homecoming’ written above an entrance to a building. Perhaps for all the writers in this anthology, this holds true…Mumbai /Bombay is home.