Monday, December 31, 2007

Maximum City. Bombay lost and found. Suketu Mehta. Gangsters. Bar dancers. Jain monks



A must read book despite its expatriate overtones. Suketu Mehta gives a detailed description of extremities of the City of Bombay and how they coexist. His amazing stories take the reader through the worlds of gangsters, bar dancers, jain monks etc seamlessly. The book gives crystal clear insights on how the sociopolitical fabric is inter-woven with fantasies, mafia, violence, racism and terrorism in Bombay, which is more or less common in almost all the third world cities at different scales. I wish I had read this book before going to Bombay for the Urban Changes project in July.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

what do you mean by "despite expatriate overtones" - I am so frustrated with this feeling from South Asian nationals...its seems almost condescending. You all seem insulated, that "oh those NRIs they would never understand, they don't know us"....I am neither NRI nor full-expat. I am of Indian ethnic orgin who has een born and raised outside of India but am now living in India. I find it incredulous that Indians think they are superior to all the other Indians living outside India...