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Bombay, Meri Jaan: Writings on Mumbai
When King Charles II of England married Princess Catherine de Braganza of Portugal in 1661, he received as part of his dowry the isles of Bom Bahia, the Good Bay. Reclaimed from the sea, these would become the modern city of Bombay. A marriage of affluence and abject poverty, where a grey concrete jungle is the backdrop to a heady potpourri of ethnic, linguistic and religious subcultures, Bombay, renamed Mumbai after the goddess Mumbadevi, defies definition. Bombay, Meri Jaan, comprising poems and prose pieces by some of the biggest names in literature, in addition to cartoons, photographs, a song and a Bombay Duck recipe, tries to capture the spirit of this great metropolis. Salman Rushdie, Pico Iyer, Dilip Chitre, Saadat Hasan Manto, V.S. Naipaul, Khushwant Singh and Busybee, among others, write about aspects of the city: the high-rise apartments and the slums; camaraderie and isolation in the crowded chawls; bhelpuri on the beach and cricket in the gully; the women's compartment of a local train; encounter cops who battle the underworld; the jazz culture of the sixties; the monsoon floods; the Shiv Sena; the cinema halls; the sea. Vibrant, engaging and provocative, this is an anthology as rich and varied as the city it celebrates.
360 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2003
31 people are currently reading
850 people want to read
About the author
Jerry Pinto
77 books369 followersJerry Pinto is a Mumbai-based Indian writer of poetry, prose and children's fiction in English, as well as a journalist. His noted works include, Helen: The Life and Times of an H-Bomb (2006) which won the Best Book on Cinema Award at the 54th National Film Awards, Surviving Women (2000) and Asylum and Other Poems (2003). His first novel Em and The Big Hoom was published in 2012.
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Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews
September 13, 2016
A lovely, lovely read.
The first on my long list of Bombay books, I came to it in a dark time. I hadn't been able to read for a while (or do anything, actually), and it brought me back, the way good books do, to why you started reading in the first place.
It takes you around Bombay in its own way and in its own rhythms, and with its heavy focus on social history and memoir, paints a portrait of the city the present seldom gets to see. Though it has literary superstars in its lineup (Pico Iyer, Naipaul, Ezekiel, Kipling, Theroux, Kiran Nagarkar, Manto), as befitting a city of this size and scale, the best for me was Paromita Vohra's memoir of young life in a gentrifying slum-turned-suburb. So many things, so many feelings about this city are told in that story, directly and indirectly, that I know I'll go back to it several times.
Credit to the editors. This must have taken some doing! The Parsis, the rise of the Shiv Sena, the jazz age of Bombay (Naresh Fernandes dazzles us here!), almost everything you'd heard about what it was like in India's biggest megapolis is given a introduction to.
In the preface, the editors say to us, "..we wanted to serve up the taste of the Lived Bombay rather than the more exotic flavours of the Visited Bombay."
I dare say they've succeeded.
The first on my long list of Bombay books, I came to it in a dark time. I hadn't been able to read for a while (or do anything, actually), and it brought me back, the way good books do, to why you started reading in the first place.
It takes you around Bombay in its own way and in its own rhythms, and with its heavy focus on social history and memoir, paints a portrait of the city the present seldom gets to see. Though it has literary superstars in its lineup (Pico Iyer, Naipaul, Ezekiel, Kipling, Theroux, Kiran Nagarkar, Manto), as befitting a city of this size and scale, the best for me was Paromita Vohra's memoir of young life in a gentrifying slum-turned-suburb. So many things, so many feelings about this city are told in that story, directly and indirectly, that I know I'll go back to it several times.
Credit to the editors. This must have taken some doing! The Parsis, the rise of the Shiv Sena, the jazz age of Bombay (Naresh Fernandes dazzles us here!), almost everything you'd heard about what it was like in India's biggest megapolis is given a introduction to.
In the preface, the editors say to us, "..we wanted to serve up the taste of the Lived Bombay rather than the more exotic flavours of the Visited Bombay."
I dare say they've succeeded.
June 13, 2011
The definitive book on bombay, way before it became mumbai. its a great ,almost eclectic mix of writings on Bombay. As someone who loves the city , I will say it is a must read. Even if you have never been to Bombay , it is still a must read. It presents Bombay as a living , breathing, theiving, loving and above all a very very bewitching city. The sections on history of Bombay, jazz in the city make for truly fantastic stories, while the selections from Rushdie, Manto and Mistry put together a lovely mosaic of the city.
December 15, 2025
Such an interesting collection of plays, short stories, poems, reports on the city of Mumbai. You get to learn about politics, society, psychology, business, economics, cuisine, religion, literature, art, architecture and more through the 46 pieces of writing in this collection. Would definitely gift this to a friend visiting the city that was curious about it from a literature point of view. It has also aged well and the stories are very relevant even in 2025 even though it was published in 2003. My favourite stories in the collection were the ones by Paromita Vora and Saadat Hasan Manto.
March 28, 2014
A city like Mumbai cannot be described in a few words. I have always wondered why Mumbai feels the need to endlessly market itself and mythologise itself. Through Bombay Meri Jaan, Jerry Pinto and Naresh Fernandes have captured the spirit of Bombay before it became Mumbai. A brilliant compilation of poems, prose, cartoons, photographs, songs and a recipe too written by some of the finest names in the Indian English literature space like Salman Rushdie, V.S. Naipaul, Arundhathi Subramaniam, Busybee etc. The stories chronicled through the book range from slums, chawls to high-rises. Other aspects like beaches, local trains, the jazz culture, floods are also handled well. This book is as engaging and vibrant as the city itself. For someone who loves the city, the book is a must-read and the authors wonderfully capture the essence of Mumbai in an all-encompassing book.
March 24, 2018
Such a fine collection. The best piece in this was by Shabnma Minwalla ‘Never at Home.’ It chronicles the story of the Bene Israel, a tiny community of Jews which lived for nearly two millenniums by the coast in Maharashtra. Migration to Israel since the 1950’s has made the community more or less disappear. Yet it is not the migration, but what stays, what endures, what fits and what doesn’t that forms part of their story.
There are some other great pieces in it as well. Manto’s gossip column of an article, VS Naipaul’s tryst with the bureaucracy, the story on basketball in Bombay, the story on the encounters carried out by the police in the 90’s, the report on slum demolitions all make for a riveting read. If you love Bombay, pick this book. If you don’t love Bombay, then all the more, pick up this book.
There are some other great pieces in it as well. Manto’s gossip column of an article, VS Naipaul’s tryst with the bureaucracy, the story on basketball in Bombay, the story on the encounters carried out by the police in the 90’s, the report on slum demolitions all make for a riveting read. If you love Bombay, pick this book. If you don’t love Bombay, then all the more, pick up this book.
May 8, 2018
A charming read on Bombay! Two friends gave me two books on Bombay to read during my Birthday week. Bombay, Meri Jaan gets my upvote for being the better of the two. This is a most delightful selection of quirky anecdotes on Bombay lived and seen through the eyes of people like Kipling, Rushdie, Khushwant Singh, Behram Contractor, Pico Iyer and even Naipaul on his visit to the city. Their eccentric musings left me chuckling and in even deeper love with this city, I am so fond of. I ended up ordering a copy as a gift for a non-Bombayite who's in awe of the city and I am sure this book will offer him moments of laughter and belonging as a reader. It's a must-read for all, for Bombay dwells in everyone's hearts once they have been to this city.
December 23, 2020
A book dipped in nostalgia and rolled in an emotional roller coaster. I drank thirstily from the passions of men and women who breathed in this beautiful beautiful city that was once my home. Where I found myself, my love and my identity. Be it the underworld and cops, bollywood stars, the surviving Jews, lesser known truths about Mumbai architecture, a single womans experiences of staying here, the origin of the sena rages, Kolatkar's fire or Lorna's stunning story and Konkani voice. The book is a dream you do not want to end.
March 12, 2009
A mixed bag, as is to be expected from an anthology, though it does feature some great essays by Suketu Mehta, Naresh Fernandes (on the Mumbai Jazz scene), Saadat Hasan Manto and especially Paromita Vohra, whose contribution is the best among the varied offerings in this book.
May 12, 2016
You cannot ever get enough of a city like Bombay. So many writers and so many faces of the city! Keep a copy handy to go back to it now and then because you cannot devour this city at a go. It has to unravel slowly.
February 15, 2021
You cannot love Bombay and not see how many contrasts the city allows to exist. This book is a collection of essays, about what makes Bombay, the mad city that 'once lodges itself in your eye, you're doomed to a lifetime of tunnel vision', "Bombay".
August 12, 2021
I selected this book to read expecting stories about how Bombay was formed and the different religions and cultures mixing together to create a cosmopolitan city.
Out of the 46 ( few were poems) very few stories spoke about the city others were abstract, with just reference to the name Bombay.
Stories that stand out or worth reading and gaining some knowledge about the city are
Story no. 8 - it talks about how the strugglers in various fields survive. Here reference used is if a dancer in films a single woman trying to live in a place where other ladies also are striving for survival. Not a great plot but yes identifies with the city.
Story no. 11 - Talks about the rise and fall of the mills. The scams associated, the strikes and the big fall where many were left without a job and went back to their villages or survived in difficult conditions.
Story no. 13 - Deals with life in slums. About the various schemes that the government came up with but did not work. The burning of slums to clear place for high rises and basically life in one of the slum areas.
Story no. 15 - Through this write-up I got to know about the basketball past that Bombay enjoyed during the 60's and 70's. The areas like Nagpafa, Matunga, Colaba where the game was popular with some greats even playing in foreign countries.
Story no. 20 - This is another story worth reading about Salim Ali and his growth as a Ornithologist. The areas of Khetwadi and Chembur which were major areas of wilderness and many birds and animals used to wander freely. The decline of the wilderness with the growth of concrete jungle is a sad part as reminisced by the author.
Story no. 21 - This is also a memory of Bombay which I had not known. This is about how a huge ship at the docks carrying highly inflammable things caught fire and exploded in a huge way killing many and injuring many more. It was during the 2nd world war so many thought it was Japan attacking us.
Story no. 26 - This story by V S Naipaul is about his struggle through the government run offices. it has humour and truth about how the government officials work and the many papers or forms to be filled to get your own things.
Story no. 37 - This story talks about the Moharram procession and play acting the tragedy that happened years ago. How this is done and what are the reactions of people watching.
Story no. 38 - The most important part of Bombay's life is the rise of the Shiv Sena headed by Bal Thackeray. How the sena was formed and what were it's activities, the people or sainiks behind it all forms a good read.
Story no. 41 - The gang wars and the formation of the encounter team is what is described in this story. The famous gang wars of the 70's and 80's and how the police force tackled it makes an interesting story.
Story no. 42 - This talks about the singing gharanas that started and formed its own niche in this city. The singers associated with the gharanas, their rise and fall gives a look at the city with a new side
Story no 43 - This story tells us about the Israeli immigrants who came to Bombay, their lives, their problems etc. There have been many immigrants like parsees, the moghuls, among very known ones, but Israel people in Bombay was something new to read about.
Story no. 44 - This story is about the jazz, pop kind of music scene in Bombay and how goans became a big part of it. This was also a knowledge gained which I feel many might not know about.
Overall the writing is good many big names as author bit few were able to generate the mood of being and belonging in Bombay.
Out of the 46 ( few were poems) very few stories spoke about the city others were abstract, with just reference to the name Bombay.
Stories that stand out or worth reading and gaining some knowledge about the city are
Story no. 8 - it talks about how the strugglers in various fields survive. Here reference used is if a dancer in films a single woman trying to live in a place where other ladies also are striving for survival. Not a great plot but yes identifies with the city.
Story no. 11 - Talks about the rise and fall of the mills. The scams associated, the strikes and the big fall where many were left without a job and went back to their villages or survived in difficult conditions.
Story no. 13 - Deals with life in slums. About the various schemes that the government came up with but did not work. The burning of slums to clear place for high rises and basically life in one of the slum areas.
Story no. 15 - Through this write-up I got to know about the basketball past that Bombay enjoyed during the 60's and 70's. The areas like Nagpafa, Matunga, Colaba where the game was popular with some greats even playing in foreign countries.
Story no. 20 - This is another story worth reading about Salim Ali and his growth as a Ornithologist. The areas of Khetwadi and Chembur which were major areas of wilderness and many birds and animals used to wander freely. The decline of the wilderness with the growth of concrete jungle is a sad part as reminisced by the author.
Story no. 21 - This is also a memory of Bombay which I had not known. This is about how a huge ship at the docks carrying highly inflammable things caught fire and exploded in a huge way killing many and injuring many more. It was during the 2nd world war so many thought it was Japan attacking us.
Story no. 26 - This story by V S Naipaul is about his struggle through the government run offices. it has humour and truth about how the government officials work and the many papers or forms to be filled to get your own things.
Story no. 37 - This story talks about the Moharram procession and play acting the tragedy that happened years ago. How this is done and what are the reactions of people watching.
Story no. 38 - The most important part of Bombay's life is the rise of the Shiv Sena headed by Bal Thackeray. How the sena was formed and what were it's activities, the people or sainiks behind it all forms a good read.
Story no. 41 - The gang wars and the formation of the encounter team is what is described in this story. The famous gang wars of the 70's and 80's and how the police force tackled it makes an interesting story.
Story no. 42 - This talks about the singing gharanas that started and formed its own niche in this city. The singers associated with the gharanas, their rise and fall gives a look at the city with a new side
Story no 43 - This story tells us about the Israeli immigrants who came to Bombay, their lives, their problems etc. There have been many immigrants like parsees, the moghuls, among very known ones, but Israel people in Bombay was something new to read about.
Story no. 44 - This story is about the jazz, pop kind of music scene in Bombay and how goans became a big part of it. This was also a knowledge gained which I feel many might not know about.
Overall the writing is good many big names as author bit few were able to generate the mood of being and belonging in Bombay.
August 6, 2012
Excellent rendition of first-hand accounts of many lives and their tryst with Bombay and how this city has in time become an inherent part of their lives and minds.
Articulate, nostalgia-evoking, replete with memories, vivid accounts of people, places and events all of which base Bombay as a common denominator.
Articulate, nostalgia-evoking, replete with memories, vivid accounts of people, places and events all of which base Bombay as a common denominator.
May 19, 2019
I've been born and brought in Mumbai, but this book felt like I've barely scratched beneath the surface. Saw Mumbai through their eyes. There's a quote in the book that perfectly summarises the reading experience, "Everyone has a Bombay story. And everyone's Bombay is not the Bombay we think we know" ❤️
February 15, 2020
A gorgeous selection of slices from the Bombay pie. Each community, each perspective, each major event is carefully picked and edited to make a whole picture of the chaos. Loved this book so much.
August 14, 2024
Once Bombay lodges itself in your eye, you are doomed to a lifetime of tunnel vision. Having lived in Bombay in my formative years, I can safely say that each individual has a story to tell about this magnificent city and every story is different. This book is the best tribute to this city as it encapsulates various shades and tones of the people who inhabit this geographical entity. A wonderfully eclectic collection of essays with one common tying theme which happens to be Bombay.
The greatest asset of this city is that it blithely continues to inhabit several different cultures all at once. So much so that the past seems indistinguishable from present and future. Bombay or for that matter India can be explained as a land with walls which the windows are always open to receive fresh air. For example the Muslims of Bombay have never been one single entity. Even within a particular identity it is a diverse lend of languages, sects, customs and cuisine. The Muharram essay was so fascinating to read and it underlines the importance of the rituals performed commonly on Mumbai streets. Most Indians don't even know there are jews here in Bombay. Bene Israel arrived in India well before the birth of Christianity & Islam.
I am also aware that Bombay should not be glamourised because there are indeed thousand of problems which every inhabitant faces on a day to day basis. Bombay is a city with an identity crisis;a city experiencing both a boom and a civic emergency. The civic authorities in order to create a "beautiful" Bombay by planting trees and displacing people from slums shows how profoundly ignorant we are of the social and economic pressures which leads to this urbanisation.
There are multiple essays focusing on the rise of Shiv Sena in Mumbai. Their rise was very contextual to the socio economic milieu of the city. It has taken a new role now but it still bears the responsibility for the wounds inflicted in the past. There were massive fissures between Hindus and Muslims and this resulted in series of riots and revenge attempts. Mumbai has seen the worse waves of violence in 1990s.
But even today Mumbai remains a city which embraces diversity like no other city, making it a true melting pot of cultures. It is truly a city of contrasts but yet it manages to create a tapestry of resilience and hope. Bombay is a field which cannot be so harvested that there will not be something left of the latest comer to glean.
The greatest asset of this city is that it blithely continues to inhabit several different cultures all at once. So much so that the past seems indistinguishable from present and future. Bombay or for that matter India can be explained as a land with walls which the windows are always open to receive fresh air. For example the Muslims of Bombay have never been one single entity. Even within a particular identity it is a diverse lend of languages, sects, customs and cuisine. The Muharram essay was so fascinating to read and it underlines the importance of the rituals performed commonly on Mumbai streets. Most Indians don't even know there are jews here in Bombay. Bene Israel arrived in India well before the birth of Christianity & Islam.
I am also aware that Bombay should not be glamourised because there are indeed thousand of problems which every inhabitant faces on a day to day basis. Bombay is a city with an identity crisis;a city experiencing both a boom and a civic emergency. The civic authorities in order to create a "beautiful" Bombay by planting trees and displacing people from slums shows how profoundly ignorant we are of the social and economic pressures which leads to this urbanisation.
There are multiple essays focusing on the rise of Shiv Sena in Mumbai. Their rise was very contextual to the socio economic milieu of the city. It has taken a new role now but it still bears the responsibility for the wounds inflicted in the past. There were massive fissures between Hindus and Muslims and this resulted in series of riots and revenge attempts. Mumbai has seen the worse waves of violence in 1990s.
But even today Mumbai remains a city which embraces diversity like no other city, making it a true melting pot of cultures. It is truly a city of contrasts but yet it manages to create a tapestry of resilience and hope. Bombay is a field which cannot be so harvested that there will not be something left of the latest comer to glean.
July 6, 2021
Rating 3.5/5
This book is a collection of writings by various authors. I have read few books on Mumbai and I feel writings are stereotypical, nothing new emerged. Mumbai is known for various things and this book covers short writings on those various things.
I felt the writings to be a bit dry and boring. but never the less, I got to know about few things. (basketball for that matter).
Few writings are interesting and refreshing, nothing to hide.
But when the same old whining on middle class woes and casteism and unemployment continues, it rather becomes tedious to get oneself to completion of the book.
Well - stereo types of Mumbai you can include them as Parsis, bollywood, slums, regionalism, underworld, crowd/population, monsoon, railway, victorial structures, birds, cotton mills, unemployment.
This book is a collection of writings by various authors. I have read few books on Mumbai and I feel writings are stereotypical, nothing new emerged. Mumbai is known for various things and this book covers short writings on those various things.
I felt the writings to be a bit dry and boring. but never the less, I got to know about few things. (basketball for that matter).
Few writings are interesting and refreshing, nothing to hide.
But when the same old whining on middle class woes and casteism and unemployment continues, it rather becomes tedious to get oneself to completion of the book.
Well - stereo types of Mumbai you can include them as Parsis, bollywood, slums, regionalism, underworld, crowd/population, monsoon, railway, victorial structures, birds, cotton mills, unemployment.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 16, 2019
An eclectic collection of some of the most popular and representative writings on Mumbai. The book has 46 small and big writings on Bombay touching upon subjects as varied as Culture, History, Partition, Cricket, Food, Bollywood, the Parsis, Jazz, Land Reclamation, Cotton Mills, Stock Market, Music, Local Trains, Poverty, Slums, Underworld, Encounter Specialists, etc. The works are prose and poetry and by some most eminent and relevant names like Naipaul, Rushdie, Khushwant Singh, Naresh Fernandes, Salim Ali, Khwaja Ahmad Abbas, etc. If one wants to know Bombay on a wide spectrum, reading this one would perhaps be the first thing to do.
April 12, 2014
Vibrant, engaging and provocative, this is an anthology as rich and varied as the city it celebrates.Book also depicts many aspects of the city (its water problems, the slums, high-density living).
September 29, 2016
really enjoyed this
September 23, 2022
F*** you Goodreads you ate my review.
July 8, 2025
Without doubt the best book I have read this year.
March 2, 2013
Very uneven.
Read
December 10, 2018I didn't read all the stories in this either but it features one of my favourite short stories of the year by Paromita Vohra.
Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews