My association with Mumbai is fairly recent. Neither its going to be permanent anytime soon.Many believe this city is addictive. I am an exception to that trend. In fact I often feel totally out of place here. Even then a short stint with this city's inherent spirit has pulled off my curiosity. Short because I have hardly stayed in Mumbai long enough to be called a Mumbaikar in true sense. Besides its the place where I started implementing what I had learned over a period of 23 years, my first job, the good bad old time, I wish I could have written something at that point of time. Anyways I am here to talk only the 500 page book have read fully :). Indeed a big achievement for budding reader like me.
So I would refrain from talking more on my past and would stick to the book by Suketu Mehta. To be very honest I hate reading books on India bashing. Especially the books which talks off every possible cliche ranging from, slums to call centers, westerners romanticize with. Maximum City is pretty close to it. I never expected it to be like this when I decided to buy it. I read Dany Boyle quoting Maximum city in one of his interviews when he was promoting Slumdog Millionaire.
Apparently movie falls under the same genre. Still may be my lost love for Mumbai motivated me to buy it.
Its a gripping account on Mumbai's dark side in most of the chapters. Narration is so engrossing that you end up reading it like a fiction. Author has nicely put together the imperative elements of this complex metropolis. Throughout the book we experience the lives of supercops, gansters, bar dancers,politians many individuals which constitues this unique ecosystem.
No comments:
Post a Comment