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Suketu Mehta's Bombay, as conveyed through his travelogue cum expos Maximum City, is a city that is as interesting as it is ambiguous. The novel not only succeeds in exposing the city's dark underbelly but also takes us on a virtual tour through the city's varied tastes and vibrant colors. To rate it as a mere travelogue would be a gross understatement; and to relate it to a novel would be artificial for, though the characters related inside could have come right out of a novel, each one of them is as real as the city itself. The city in Suketu's book is not a mere location or a landmark. It is the main character that binds together the lives and events that occur in their lives. The method adopted for depicting the city to the reader is through the lives of the people in it.
The people, as varied as the city itself, bound together as one by the common dream that is Bombay. This is why the narrative in the book is not only bound to Bombay, there are events related which occur in Dubai. Dialogues with gangsters in Pakistan and Dubai are mentioned. Though the physical separation is present Maximum City clearly depicts how mentally these individuals are still living in Bombay. The encounters related in the book are as colorful as they are touching.
Some of them, like the meetings with the contract killers, are terrifying. While some others, like the meetings with Mona Lisa, are poignant. Throughout the book are related, to the word, the conversations and the revelations of these characters that the author met during his stay in Bombay. Each stand out, or are interesting in their own way. The fearless and honest police officer, the exiled gangsters, the contract killers, the bar dancers, the Jains, the religious fanatics, the slum dwellers etcetera etcetera. All have a story to tell and their collective story is the story of the city.
Through most part of the book the author has taken, rightly, the stand of an opinion less listener, conveying down, word-by-word, the stories that the characters have to say, leaving the judgment part to the readers. The areas in which the book deviates from this policy are the areas where it wavers. The book, though a real page-turner, is thick (585 pages). Though the stories of the poor and the so-called 'morally compromised people' are beautifully conveyed, the rich and the upper middle class are not brought to light. The author himself states in the book, ' I had left as a teenager, spent twenty-one years wandering around the cold countries of the world, and returned to resume an interrupted adolescence. ' The book is as much the written testament of the author's awe towards this rich and diverse city as it's a pursuit into the reasons and the drives that keeps the city alive and ticking. Though the first half of the book clearly states the state of disdain in which the things are in Bombay, towards the end, the values that this city upholds and the things that make it unique are put forth.
The end leaves you not only in love with Bombay but also heartbroken for leaving the characters behind.
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Research essay sample on On Mehta Maximum City Bombay Lost And Found
