Muses Over Mumbai by Murzban F. Shroff. Published in 2024 by Bloomsbury Publishing India Pvt Ltd, 2nd Floor, LSC Building No. 4, DDA Complex, Pocket C-6 & 7, Vasant Kunj, New Delhi 110070; website: www.bloomsbury.com Pp: xii + 248. Price: Rs 699.
Murderous cabbies, wisdom-spouting gurus, builders of opulent skyscrapers, girls who survive by sorting through heaps of garbage, silver-tongued lawyers, mangy strays. These are some of the characters who make up the city at the heart of Muses Over Mumbai, the new book by Murzban F. Shroff.
In this collection of 17 short stories, lives crisscross and collide, run at parallel and meet briefly at points of tangent. Just like they do in the cramped, bustling bazaars and highrises of Bombay, a.k.a. Mumbai. Through a gallery of characters — both familiar and strange — Shroff attempts to capture the many worlds in the city. And to address a series of questions that trouble most Mumbaikars.
Murzban Shroff: shining a torch
"Mumbai is upgrading, or so they tell us; but at what cost to its heritage and stability?” asks Shroff in his introduction. "Can a carefully pieced jigsaw of seven islands take all this relentless development? Can it withstand a double whammy of underwater reclamation and overhead pounding? Can a city that is growing vertical at supersonic speed meet its requirements for broader roads, smoother traffic flows, adequate parking, clean air and a consistent supply of adequate water?”
The author approaches these questions by shining a torch into elite skyscrapers, seaside bungalows, dance bars, public toilets and construction sites. There are the inevitable battles over parking and complaints about non-vegetarian food by vegetarian neighbors; the familiar tales of greedy builders and disfigured neighborhoods.
In "The Mochi’s Wife,” Shraddha — "fair, firm-bodied and many years younger than her husband” — is in awe of her taciturn husband. She puts up with his drinking and runs the house on a meager allowance till the mochi (cobbler) starts to spend more and more time at the adda (speakeasy), dabble in illegal activities and eventually gets arrested. At which point she sheds her pride, takes a bold and unexpected step and becomes "a woman who knew her value, her worth, a woman who knew where she was headed and why.”
In "Aunt Elena’s Revenge” a kind Bandra aunty needs to find a way to deter her persistent and annoying neighbor. Determined to do something to stop the daily visits and "invasion” by Ms Shah, Aunt Elena comes up with a funny and effective plan on Christmas Day.
In "Hafta: The Price” we encounter Kalyan Babu, who is not just the owner of Red Stallion, the local dance bar, but is also the neighborhood Agony Uncle. And Sushila, the rag-picker, who is saving up to become an Uber driver. While in "Mehrunissa’s Story,” we meet dimpled, brown-eyed Mehrunissa — the "last casualty of 26/11, the case that never got reported in the newspaper” — and hear the dispiriting tale of how she has started to wear a burqa.
Shroff’s stories are a mixed bag. Some bring with them an epiphany and a moment of connection. Others are flat and a little cliched. But together they work to describe a city that, even while it is changing dramatically, manages to remain the same. "But even in the midst of all this commercial anxiety, even while the body of Mumbai is being slowly dismantled and its face botoxed, there is one thing that remains steadfast,” writes Shroff. "And that is the soul of the city. Its spirit, its ethos, which brings its diverse citizens under a single canopy of perseverance, a will to live and resist and triumph over their circumstances.”
In some of the best stories in this collection, it is possible to glimpse the soul of the city. SHABNAM MINWALLA
Minwalla writes for newspapers, plays mother to three teenagers, devours murder mysteries and shops for saris. Her absolutely favorite activity is writing books for children.