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Muses Over Mumbai: Stories
Muses Over Mumbai
is written with the single underlying belief that a city lives through the characters that occupy it.
Among many others, you will meet Major Anirudh Sood, a war hero struggling to resolve a housing society feud; Shraddha, the mochi's wife, who goes to great lengths to protect her twin daughters; Anuradha Singhal, an attractive socialite and fitness coach who must confront her fragility; Ramkumar Tiwari, an upright constable grappling with questions of caste, morality and pride; the author himself, demanding answers from the last surviving terrorist of the 26/11 attacks; Gussy, an advertising executive pursued by a homicidal cabbie; Ramesh
Malpani, a half-crazed tycoon who must draw on his business guile to fend off an extortion threat; Kitayun Alwa, an environmental activist who takes up cudgels against the city authorities; Jai Singhal, a family-loving builder who ought to prove his love for the city; Sikander, a waste collector with a mission to save the city's stray dogs; Auntie Elena and her obsession with a lavish Christmas lunch; and Inspector Bedekar, who has but a single night to prove the innocence of a friend.
These fictional episodes are a tribute to a city of infinite stories and its nocturnal protagonists.
Among many others, you will meet Major Anirudh Sood, a war hero struggling to resolve a housing society feud; Shraddha, the mochi's wife, who goes to great lengths to protect her twin daughters; Anuradha Singhal, an attractive socialite and fitness coach who must confront her fragility; Ramkumar Tiwari, an upright constable grappling with questions of caste, morality and pride; the author himself, demanding answers from the last surviving terrorist of the 26/11 attacks; Gussy, an advertising executive pursued by a homicidal cabbie; Ramesh
Malpani, a half-crazed tycoon who must draw on his business guile to fend off an extortion threat; Kitayun Alwa, an environmental activist who takes up cudgels against the city authorities; Jai Singhal, a family-loving builder who ought to prove his love for the city; Sikander, a waste collector with a mission to save the city's stray dogs; Auntie Elena and her obsession with a lavish Christmas lunch; and Inspector Bedekar, who has but a single night to prove the innocence of a friend.
These fictional episodes are a tribute to a city of infinite stories and its nocturnal protagonists.
255 pages, Kindle Edition
Published December 18, 2024
3 people are currently reading
28 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
February 3, 2025
A colourful, heartfelt portrait.
February 24, 2025
The reputation of some books precede them. I picked this book up like I pick any book writen about Bombay, but none of the many tales left an impression on me.
February 22, 2025
🛺 muses over mumbai by murzban f. shroff 🛺
Genre : contemporary short stories
My 💭:
[21 /2/25 8.35 PM]
Ah this book provided me exactly the soul searching that I have been craving. I think contemporary short stories collection is one of my new favourite genres.
Life is nothing but a collection of stories. Our own individual life feels like one big book, doesn't it? We are discovering one chapter after the next. This book is a representation of this feeling. The author has brilliantly made the city Mumbai as the main protagonist in all of the stories and it is this city's character that connects everyone else in the story. There's something about old cities like Mumbai, Kolkata, Delhi etc that they have a personality of their own and their people follow them heads down.
There are many critically human topics explored in each of the story. Be it human ego or materialism or wanting to matter or importance of self worth or karma or feeling dead while being alive or unexpected kindness or the sweet SWEET feeling of self indulgence - you'll experience it all in this book. I'll definitely have to revisit some of the stories again when I grow older to have a better perspective on them. Among all the stories, "All That We Own" touched my heart the most. It had the most beautiful and thoughtful message: we cry over simple things not happening the way we want them to be, but we forget that we came to this world with nothing on us and we'll leave it the same way. We own nothing, not even our own selves. It was a pretty sobering message tbh.
Being born and brought up in a very vibrant city, I enjoyed reading this book very very much. If you ever need something to ground you, read this book with a hot cuppa in hand. ☕
How would you introduce your city?
Genre : contemporary short stories
My 💭:
[21 /2/25 8.35 PM]
Ah this book provided me exactly the soul searching that I have been craving. I think contemporary short stories collection is one of my new favourite genres.
Life is nothing but a collection of stories. Our own individual life feels like one big book, doesn't it? We are discovering one chapter after the next. This book is a representation of this feeling. The author has brilliantly made the city Mumbai as the main protagonist in all of the stories and it is this city's character that connects everyone else in the story. There's something about old cities like Mumbai, Kolkata, Delhi etc that they have a personality of their own and their people follow them heads down.
There are many critically human topics explored in each of the story. Be it human ego or materialism or wanting to matter or importance of self worth or karma or feeling dead while being alive or unexpected kindness or the sweet SWEET feeling of self indulgence - you'll experience it all in this book. I'll definitely have to revisit some of the stories again when I grow older to have a better perspective on them. Among all the stories, "All That We Own" touched my heart the most. It had the most beautiful and thoughtful message: we cry over simple things not happening the way we want them to be, but we forget that we came to this world with nothing on us and we'll leave it the same way. We own nothing, not even our own selves. It was a pretty sobering message tbh.
Being born and brought up in a very vibrant city, I enjoyed reading this book very very much. If you ever need something to ground you, read this book with a hot cuppa in hand. ☕
How would you introduce your city?
October 4, 2025
Didn't quite feel like the spirit of mumbai was in any of the stories. Most stories felt quite cynical except the odd few. Some felt like they punched down. But most ended on a note that left a sour if not a bland aftertaste.
April 18, 2025
For someone who has never been to Mumbai, Murzban F. Shroff’s collection of short stories on the city, Muses over Mumbai, was the perfect introduction to it. His writing is laced with the deep love that he shares for the city and the nitty-gritty of city life. His collection touches every corner of Mumbai, every kind of life lived in the city, and a multitude of things that the city feels every day. Mumbai is a living, breathing entity in these stories.
Shroff’s words echo a mourning that reminisces about the rich heritage of Mumbai, which is constantly having to battle the rapid urbanization that the space is going through. Sometimes, he laughs at the absurdity of it all; as in the first story “Ruffled Feathers,” he writes of a menacing pigeon that seemed to have become the bane of existence of the inhabitants in a South Bombay society. He writes about the Mumbai attacks, he writes about the cafés, and he writes about the greed that has permeated deep into the layers of the city. But mostly, he writes of the people. He writes of the resilience, the dreams, and the warmth that the people of Mumbai hold—the people who make the city so full of love, as the ones who carry a part of Mumbai in their hearts say.
After so long, I have read a collection of short stories by an Indian author that truly touched my heart. Shroff’s writing is so familiar and charming that I could not stop myself from starting one story after another. The stories are significant in their portrayal of urban India and will definitely go down as landmark works about the South Asian city.
A pulsing but mellow critique of the city of Mumbai, this one is a must-read for lovers of Mumbai and short stories.
Shroff’s words echo a mourning that reminisces about the rich heritage of Mumbai, which is constantly having to battle the rapid urbanization that the space is going through. Sometimes, he laughs at the absurdity of it all; as in the first story “Ruffled Feathers,” he writes of a menacing pigeon that seemed to have become the bane of existence of the inhabitants in a South Bombay society. He writes about the Mumbai attacks, he writes about the cafés, and he writes about the greed that has permeated deep into the layers of the city. But mostly, he writes of the people. He writes of the resilience, the dreams, and the warmth that the people of Mumbai hold—the people who make the city so full of love, as the ones who carry a part of Mumbai in their hearts say.
After so long, I have read a collection of short stories by an Indian author that truly touched my heart. Shroff’s writing is so familiar and charming that I could not stop myself from starting one story after another. The stories are significant in their portrayal of urban India and will definitely go down as landmark works about the South Asian city.
A pulsing but mellow critique of the city of Mumbai, this one is a must-read for lovers of Mumbai and short stories.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews