Bombay/Mumbai. The city, however you address her, has been reclaimed in fiction time and again. Think Salman Rushdie?s Midnight?s Children, Gregory David Roberts? Shantaram or even Vikram Chandra?s Sacred Games. Now, Murzban F Shroff has added his name to the list by showcasing the lives of the marginalised and the dispossessed in this ?dhamaal city, masti city, city of chances and fun?. But theirs is also a story of terrible struggle and deep sacrifice. ?Perhaps there is no other city in the world where the struggle spills so vividly and unabashedly out onto the streets, for that?s what people are here for: to make the journey, to realise their dreams.? Shroff ?does? Bombay by foot, by train, by taxi, by victoria, shadowing lives of its citizens, ?their conflicts, their betrayals, their realization and their redemption.?
As Shroff takes in the sights and sounds, we are taken on a tour of the city ? okay, it?s mostly South Bombay, but that?s also where the divide is most pronounced. So, you have a dhobi on a local train from Bandra to Churchgate, pondering over his future against the onslaught of washing machines ? and worse, real estate sharks looking for land in the dhobi ghat; a film production assistant caught in a traffic scramble and thinking of her failed relationship; the maalishwalla at Chowpatty beach pining for his wife in the village; the victoriawallah at Nariman Point wondering how he will ensure little Zulfi?s safety. He trades off his sense of ethics but that doesn?t make him a lesser man.
There?s the wonderful This House of Mine, where people from various communities come together to save their ?endangered? building or The Great Divide where an aged Parsi lady takes it upon herself to guard her husband?s legacy who she thought died ?from a national failure to dissolve differences, to overthrow biases, to bridge the divide and keep this diverse country as one?.
But through the many citizens Shroff ?shadows?, we hear plenty of clich?s too. Like when taxi-driver Mohitram Doiphade reminisces about his first day in Bombay. ?He remembered the rush of excitement he?d felt when the big brown engine with the dust of India stormed into the Victoria Terminus and settled with a hot, hefty sigh against its girders. Everyone had rushed to the door to catch the first impressions of the big city, where dreams could take shape, where fortunes could be built, if one persevered long enough.? Or the rather harsh view of the Page 3 people in the title story ? ??these stars of Brand India, these icons who kept polishing their own halos, toasting their own success, wealth with achievement, and opulence with taste.?
And yet, to write this book, to find out what is the lure of Bombay that ?inspires writers like me and a population of 20 million to stay and toil and dream?, to particularly look at the lives of have-nots up close, Shroff scoured the streets of Bombay. That shows in the details he provides in every story. The love-hate relationship he has with the city ? like many other Mumbaikars ? also shows through. He doesn?t provide any answers to why there?s still the lack of clean roads, clean air, clean water and a ?clean system of living without the constant despair of bribes and corruption?. There aren?t any easy answers, of course.