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Bombay Balchão
Bombay was the city everyone came to in the early decades of the nineteenth century: among them, the Goans and the Mangaloreans. Looking for safe harbour, livelihood, and a new place to call home. Communities congregated around churches and markets, sharing lord and land with the native East Indians. The young among them were nudged on to the path of marriage, procreation and godliness, though noble intentions were often ambushed by errant love and plain and simple lust. As in the story of Annette and Benji (and Joe) or Michael and Merlyn (and Ellena).
Lovers and haters, friends and family, married men and determined singles, churchgoers and abstainers, Bombay Balchão is a tangled tale of ordinary lives – of a woman who loses her husband to a dockyard explosion and turns to bootlegging, a teen romance that drowns like a paper boat, a social misfit rescued by his addiction to crosswords, a wife who tries to exorcise the spirit of her dead mother-in-law from her husband, a rebellious young woman who spurns true love for the abandonment of dance. Ordinary, except when seen through their own eyes. Then, it’s legend.
Set in Cavel, a tiny Catholic neighbourhood on Bombay’s D’Lima Street, this delightful debut novel is painted with many shades of history and memory, laughter and melancholy, sunshine and silver rain.
Lovers and haters, friends and family, married men and determined singles, churchgoers and abstainers, Bombay Balchão is a tangled tale of ordinary lives – of a woman who loses her husband to a dockyard explosion and turns to bootlegging, a teen romance that drowns like a paper boat, a social misfit rescued by his addiction to crosswords, a wife who tries to exorcise the spirit of her dead mother-in-law from her husband, a rebellious young woman who spurns true love for the abandonment of dance. Ordinary, except when seen through their own eyes. Then, it’s legend.
Set in Cavel, a tiny Catholic neighbourhood on Bombay’s D’Lima Street, this delightful debut novel is painted with many shades of history and memory, laughter and melancholy, sunshine and silver rain.
224 pages, Hardcover
Published November 18, 2019
163 people are currently reading
3335 people want to read
About the author
Jane Borges
5 books109 followersJane Borges is a senior journalist, author and oral archivist. Her bylines have appeared in the Mumbai Mirror, Sunday Mid-Day, The Swaddle, New Lines Magazine, Scroll, The Asian Age and Muscat Daily. In 2022, she won the RedInk Journalism Award. Her debut novel, Bombay Balchão (2019), was shortlisted for the Sahitya Akademi Yuva Puruskar and Atta Galatta Bangalore Literature Festival Book Prize. She has also co-authored the non-fiction Mafia Queens of Mumbai: Stories of Women from the Ganglands (2011). A chapter from the book was adapted into the Bollywood film Gangubai (2022) by Sanjay Leela Bhansali. She is the co-founder of Soboicar, an oral history archive chronicling the lives of Catholics who migrated from the Konkan to South Mumbai. She was the visiting Charles Wallace fellow at the University of Stirling, Scotland in early 2025. She currently works as deputy features editor at Mumbai Mirror.
She lives in Mumbai.
She lives in Mumbai.
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Displaying 1 - 29 of 358 reviews
December 16, 2022
"In this game of ignoring and being ignored, the two found a silly comfort. He remained persistent and she adamant."
I say these characters are quite weird, interesting and so real!
The above lines may make the story sound like it's full of such lines. Believe me, it isn't. But yes, believe me when I say it's a chaotic combination of characters so darn unique and offstandish but which would keep you attached to them once you start reading about them.
When I first read this book, I thought it was a compilation of short stories! I was quite enjoying it and it seemed like it's a short story compilation with surprising endings of each chapter. But by the third chapter, names started recurring and then and there (silly me!) I realised it's a novel. Seriously I had a moment of feeling 'wow enjoy the moment of diving into a book blindly!' and I quite enjoyed it as well ☺️
When the book ended I don't know what happened but I was emotional and I made myself believe that there's a sequel coming soon.
*Highlights:
The weird, somehow estranged characters who you would love to tease yet at the same time sympathize with.
The ending of each chapter was quite surprising!
The characters and the narration sent me laughing out loud at times, and then again I was trying my best to understand the characters but in the end I found them quite endearing and wanted to punch-hug them for making me worried about them.
Their stories and how they're related in subsequent chapters of the story happening in different years (2015, 1958, 1997, 1944, 1953, 1972, 2003, 2007, 1987, 1976, 2010 for the last two chapters).
*The writing:
It's engrossing! Once you start, I do not think you might want to stop reading this one. Because I just couldn't. I had to ignore my favourite series' notification to go on reading this book.
*Just read chapters 8 and 12. Chapter 8 for all the feels. Chapter 12 to know what the title means and why it means so much to the whole story.
Such a good one!
I say these characters are quite weird, interesting and so real!
The above lines may make the story sound like it's full of such lines. Believe me, it isn't. But yes, believe me when I say it's a chaotic combination of characters so darn unique and offstandish but which would keep you attached to them once you start reading about them.
When I first read this book, I thought it was a compilation of short stories! I was quite enjoying it and it seemed like it's a short story compilation with surprising endings of each chapter. But by the third chapter, names started recurring and then and there (silly me!) I realised it's a novel. Seriously I had a moment of feeling 'wow enjoy the moment of diving into a book blindly!' and I quite enjoyed it as well ☺️
When the book ended I don't know what happened but I was emotional and I made myself believe that there's a sequel coming soon.
*Highlights:
The weird, somehow estranged characters who you would love to tease yet at the same time sympathize with.
The ending of each chapter was quite surprising!
The characters and the narration sent me laughing out loud at times, and then again I was trying my best to understand the characters but in the end I found them quite endearing and wanted to punch-hug them for making me worried about them.
Their stories and how they're related in subsequent chapters of the story happening in different years (2015, 1958, 1997, 1944, 1953, 1972, 2003, 2007, 1987, 1976, 2010 for the last two chapters).
*The writing:
It's engrossing! Once you start, I do not think you might want to stop reading this one. Because I just couldn't. I had to ignore my favourite series' notification to go on reading this book.
*Just read chapters 8 and 12. Chapter 8 for all the feels. Chapter 12 to know what the title means and why it means so much to the whole story.
Such a good one!
March 9, 2023
This is a charming book, which uses the setting of a Goan Catholic locality in Cavel, Mumbai to tell a nice story with loveable characters.
The set of characters in Bosco Mansion, Cavel include - Michael Coutinho who is married to Merlyn; Mario – Michael’s friend; Ellena who later Michael gets close to; Annette – Michael’s irrepressible sister, who after a period of interest in Michael’s friend Joe, gets married to Benjamin; Joe who is married to a much elder Rose Maria. There are other characters who make an appearance linked to the lives of these. The chapters skip years and cover different periods telling the everyday stories of the characters’ interests, love lives, and routine issues.
The descriptions of the people, the locality, their customs, food habits all feel very authentic. There is a nice light feel to the narration through the book. I found the jumps in timelines as well as quick introduction of many characters initially a little difficult. Also due to the shifts, while the characters are loveable, they feel a little unfinished. Some more significant incidents would have benefitted the story as well as lent greater depth to the characters.
My rating: 3.5 / 5.
The audiobook narration by Meher Acharya Dar was very good.
The set of characters in Bosco Mansion, Cavel include - Michael Coutinho who is married to Merlyn; Mario – Michael’s friend; Ellena who later Michael gets close to; Annette – Michael’s irrepressible sister, who after a period of interest in Michael’s friend Joe, gets married to Benjamin; Joe who is married to a much elder Rose Maria. There are other characters who make an appearance linked to the lives of these. The chapters skip years and cover different periods telling the everyday stories of the characters’ interests, love lives, and routine issues.
The descriptions of the people, the locality, their customs, food habits all feel very authentic. There is a nice light feel to the narration through the book. I found the jumps in timelines as well as quick introduction of many characters initially a little difficult. Also due to the shifts, while the characters are loveable, they feel a little unfinished. Some more significant incidents would have benefitted the story as well as lent greater depth to the characters.
My rating: 3.5 / 5.
The audiobook narration by Meher Acharya Dar was very good.
July 16, 2022
Totally enjoyed reading this book.
Took me back to why I love calling my city Bombay and not Mumbai
Took me back to why I love calling my city Bombay and not Mumbai
December 8, 2019
Like Pu La Deshpande's Batatya Chi Chaal and Rohinton Mistry's Tales From Firozshah Baugh, Bombay Balchao thrives on a plot of land ( Cavel, a Christian Wadi in South Mumbai) where several destinies inter-mingle with one another. These are stories about simple people with simple problems that are escalated to epic proportions often making the reader laugh out loud. The exorcism of Coutinho and death of Benji are delicious laugh riots.
And there are more. Characters that warm your heart. My personal favorites were Tresa Aunty the bootlegger and her 'awkward' son Mario who goes on to become The King of the Crossword.
From celebration of sorpotel to sobering with pez, the novel is peppered with Goan food and much loved daily pao. The chapter in which 70 plus Ellena Gomes cooks Balchao for the first time reads like poetry. The art of preparing the tangy prawn pickle is strewn with life lessons.
This is a Bombay novel, my favorite genre. It is for anyone who loves Bombay, her history, communities and hamlets that revel in their native food music fashion and love stories. Moreover this is a book for any reader who likes bloody good writing.
And there are more. Characters that warm your heart. My personal favorites were Tresa Aunty the bootlegger and her 'awkward' son Mario who goes on to become The King of the Crossword.
From celebration of sorpotel to sobering with pez, the novel is peppered with Goan food and much loved daily pao. The chapter in which 70 plus Ellena Gomes cooks Balchao for the first time reads like poetry. The art of preparing the tangy prawn pickle is strewn with life lessons.
This is a Bombay novel, my favorite genre. It is for anyone who loves Bombay, her history, communities and hamlets that revel in their native food music fashion and love stories. Moreover this is a book for any reader who likes bloody good writing.
January 19, 2020
What is a community? A group of people who share something in common? But what could qualify as that ‘commonality’ that a group must share in order for it to be considered a community? A living space? A past? Interests, hobbies, occupations, beliefs, attitudes? Blood? Can a community share all of these, and more? Can you be part of a community without wanting to be part of it? Can the community be part of you, so intrinsic and deeply embedded in your personality that it does not leave you even in death?
Jane Borges, in her debut novel Bombay Balchao, examines an interesting, often-stereotyped community: the Catholics (and, even more specifically, Goan Catholics) of Bombay. She sets the story in a fictitious enclave she calls Cavel, where, in a building named Bosco Mansion, live the Coutinhos (among others). Octogenarian Michael Coutinho is the first to be introduced to the readers, reminiscing in 2015 about a long-ago day when he, as a teenager, witnessed an event that became lore in the Cavel community.
From the teenaged Michael to his sister Annette, getting engaged to the fiancé her parents didn’t approve of; from Michael’s young and very withdrawn friend Mario, who could only truly express himself when he had a pencil and paper before him—the story wanders, skipping back and forth across timelines, moving not in a strictly linear way, but one which reveals layers and relationships as it moves now forward and now back. At first, these anecdotes seem to be mere vignettes. However, as the book progresses, they resolve themselves into something more: an insight into characters and communities, into minds and hearts. Spreading across many decades, this is a story of a family, its friends and associates, that comes very vividly alive. The stories are simple but not simplistic, each of them contributing to revealing the character of the individuals and the community they are part of.
Borges’s writing manages to strike a fine balance between fact and fiction. It’s obvious that she’s done a great deal of research into the history of Bombay, but she does a good job of incorporating that history—from wartime Bombay to Chic Chocolate, to the relations that developed between East Indians, Goans, and Mangaloreans, and more—without making it tedious. The history is woven into the lives of the characters, along with their patois, their eccentricities, their loves and hates, in a way that makes it what heritage really should be: an integral part of modern life.
Prawn balchao, that classic Goan pickle, is, at its best, a mouthwatering melding together of flavours: of tartness and chilli heat, of sweetness and the fragrance of spices. Bombay Balchao is aptly named, for this too is a blend, a good balancing act between the individual and the community, the old and the new. Between someone living with the ghosts of the past, and someone looking ahead into the future. There is pathos here, sheer heartbreak—and there is also a deliciously wicked humour at work in several of these episodes. There is passion, enmity, hatred, disappointment, ambition: all the emotions that make up human life. Borges tells her story well and with an empathy that one cannot help but warm to.
(From my review for The New Indian Express: https://www.newindianexpress.com/maga...)
Jane Borges, in her debut novel Bombay Balchao, examines an interesting, often-stereotyped community: the Catholics (and, even more specifically, Goan Catholics) of Bombay. She sets the story in a fictitious enclave she calls Cavel, where, in a building named Bosco Mansion, live the Coutinhos (among others). Octogenarian Michael Coutinho is the first to be introduced to the readers, reminiscing in 2015 about a long-ago day when he, as a teenager, witnessed an event that became lore in the Cavel community.
From the teenaged Michael to his sister Annette, getting engaged to the fiancé her parents didn’t approve of; from Michael’s young and very withdrawn friend Mario, who could only truly express himself when he had a pencil and paper before him—the story wanders, skipping back and forth across timelines, moving not in a strictly linear way, but one which reveals layers and relationships as it moves now forward and now back. At first, these anecdotes seem to be mere vignettes. However, as the book progresses, they resolve themselves into something more: an insight into characters and communities, into minds and hearts. Spreading across many decades, this is a story of a family, its friends and associates, that comes very vividly alive. The stories are simple but not simplistic, each of them contributing to revealing the character of the individuals and the community they are part of.
Borges’s writing manages to strike a fine balance between fact and fiction. It’s obvious that she’s done a great deal of research into the history of Bombay, but she does a good job of incorporating that history—from wartime Bombay to Chic Chocolate, to the relations that developed between East Indians, Goans, and Mangaloreans, and more—without making it tedious. The history is woven into the lives of the characters, along with their patois, their eccentricities, their loves and hates, in a way that makes it what heritage really should be: an integral part of modern life.
Prawn balchao, that classic Goan pickle, is, at its best, a mouthwatering melding together of flavours: of tartness and chilli heat, of sweetness and the fragrance of spices. Bombay Balchao is aptly named, for this too is a blend, a good balancing act between the individual and the community, the old and the new. Between someone living with the ghosts of the past, and someone looking ahead into the future. There is pathos here, sheer heartbreak—and there is also a deliciously wicked humour at work in several of these episodes. There is passion, enmity, hatred, disappointment, ambition: all the emotions that make up human life. Borges tells her story well and with an empathy that one cannot help but warm to.
(From my review for The New Indian Express: https://www.newindianexpress.com/maga...)
August 7, 2020
Maybe Bombay does not have the charms that once caught my attention, but there- I just fell for it again.
I have a confession to make. I love Bombay as much as I hate it. I don't like the commute, I don't like the crowd, I don't like the rains that bring this city to a standstill, I don't like how fast-paced the life is. But I also love it. I love how well I can navigate my way around it and I love how I know the famous and the not-so-famous joints. This city has given me some of my best memories and some of my best people. My relationship with Bombay is complicated. I hate how crowded the trains are, but I am reminded of the way women have offered kind words when I was nursing a broken heart while sitting at the window seat of the 9:50 Churchgate local. This city has seen my love, my hurt, my fears, my ghosts, my anguish. Much like this book covers it all!
This city is something else. Lately, it is more for the wrong reasons. I know the rent is unaffordable, the travel takes the life out of you, the city doesn't value human life, and it is dying. And yet here I am, unable to disregard my romantic delusions. It reminds me of Annette's feelings for Benji, and Joe's arduous longing, or is it the way Ellena feels for Michael? Read the book to find out!
Bombay Balchao is a story about people set in a tiny Catholic neighborhood, and it somehow manages to capture the essence of this city as I felt it. A bunch of short stories beautifully come together to tell a story of man-made miracles and skirmishes, of romances and broken hearts, of life and death, of childhood and old-age. I didn't grow up in a similar neighborhood, but that didn't stop it from being familiar, men!
One of the characters in the book is all for falling in love as long as the one you lose your heart to, isn't indifferent to your fall. I know Bombay is indifferent to my feelings, but for me, this city feels exactly like the Balchão tasted for Michael- full of love.
PS.: The letters were my favourite! Also, why am I a vegetarian!
I have a confession to make. I love Bombay as much as I hate it. I don't like the commute, I don't like the crowd, I don't like the rains that bring this city to a standstill, I don't like how fast-paced the life is. But I also love it. I love how well I can navigate my way around it and I love how I know the famous and the not-so-famous joints. This city has given me some of my best memories and some of my best people. My relationship with Bombay is complicated. I hate how crowded the trains are, but I am reminded of the way women have offered kind words when I was nursing a broken heart while sitting at the window seat of the 9:50 Churchgate local. This city has seen my love, my hurt, my fears, my ghosts, my anguish. Much like this book covers it all!
This city is something else. Lately, it is more for the wrong reasons. I know the rent is unaffordable, the travel takes the life out of you, the city doesn't value human life, and it is dying. And yet here I am, unable to disregard my romantic delusions. It reminds me of Annette's feelings for Benji, and Joe's arduous longing, or is it the way Ellena feels for Michael? Read the book to find out!
Bombay Balchao is a story about people set in a tiny Catholic neighborhood, and it somehow manages to capture the essence of this city as I felt it. A bunch of short stories beautifully come together to tell a story of man-made miracles and skirmishes, of romances and broken hearts, of life and death, of childhood and old-age. I didn't grow up in a similar neighborhood, but that didn't stop it from being familiar, men!
One of the characters in the book is all for falling in love as long as the one you lose your heart to, isn't indifferent to your fall. I know Bombay is indifferent to my feelings, but for me, this city feels exactly like the Balchão tasted for Michael- full of love.
PS.: The letters were my favourite! Also, why am I a vegetarian!
January 6, 2020
Bombay Balchao entices readers with its narrative structure, its characters and setting. Set in Caval,a tiny Catholic neighborhood on Bombay’s D’Lima Street, the author effortlessly weaves an intergenerational tale of a Goan Catholic family, the Coutinhos who live in Bosco Mansion, an old two storeyed building. Other residents of the building and the neighbors of the Coutinhos, the lives they live and the situations they find themselves in, make for an engaging read.
The back and forth in the chronology of events can be slightly confusing to begin with but the narrative casts a spell that binds the reader to turn the pages while stopping at times to laugh with consternation at times and at times with great amusement. The characters are unique and their life journeys more so: one sided love, elopements, a miracle regarding a Pastor on fire (literally), a crazy misunderstanding over chikkoos and the matter of ghosts and some more.
Taking readers to the history of the Catholic population in the city of Bombay, the book is peppered with historical facts and fictional ties which makes for fascinating reading: the diversity in the community stemming from different backgrounds: the East Indian Christians who are descendants of the Portuguese colonial elements, the Goan Catholics and the Manglorean Catholics. The sprinkling of socio political history in the narrative and the contributions of the Catholic population in the backdrop of existential issues in Bombay/Mumbai: shared spaces, rent and landlord issues, water allocation make Bombay Balchao an unforgettable read.
The back and forth in the chronology of events can be slightly confusing to begin with but the narrative casts a spell that binds the reader to turn the pages while stopping at times to laugh with consternation at times and at times with great amusement. The characters are unique and their life journeys more so: one sided love, elopements, a miracle regarding a Pastor on fire (literally), a crazy misunderstanding over chikkoos and the matter of ghosts and some more.
Taking readers to the history of the Catholic population in the city of Bombay, the book is peppered with historical facts and fictional ties which makes for fascinating reading: the diversity in the community stemming from different backgrounds: the East Indian Christians who are descendants of the Portuguese colonial elements, the Goan Catholics and the Manglorean Catholics. The sprinkling of socio political history in the narrative and the contributions of the Catholic population in the backdrop of existential issues in Bombay/Mumbai: shared spaces, rent and landlord issues, water allocation make Bombay Balchao an unforgettable read.
January 30, 2021
193-A, Bosco Mansion in Pope’s Colony on Dr D’Lima Street♥️
I would do anything to travel back in time and live there.
I went into this little book with honestly no high expectations. It was meant to be a chilled out collection of short stories. But when you get into it, oh my god.
It’s a collection of 12 stories, featuring the residents of Bosco Mansion, a hundred-and-five years old, rickety building comprising of 6 flats over 3 floors, where you will be bound to leave your heart.
The stories of these residents is woven beautifully with each other. They are the most regular people ever - gossiping, gardening, eating pao, fighting and loving. But even a peek into their life will make your heart feel so full. There’s a sense of belongingness that develops when you finish. This book feels like home.
The good old Bombay is shown in the most heartwarming manner ever. The story begins in 1940s, when Bombay isn’t the glamorous cosmopolitan capital as we know of it now, but just a newborn baby of the independent India. Though it’s still filled with people with different accents and fish mongers. And though it’s still as charming as ever with the same soul at heart.
All the characters and their stories are handled with such perfection that I am obsessed. The side kick of the protagonist in one story is the hero in the next, some knots are made in one story and are untangled in the fourth one, and at the same time it’s made sure that all of these residents and their lives don’t go unnoticed.
In a short span of some 200 or so pages, you grow up with the characters. You see them having a crush in their teen years or losing a beloved pencil in a commotion, and then you see them in their old age, complaining about their kids who wouldn’t come back from Canada or getting a job to make crosswords for a world famous newspaper at the age of 50. Phew.
You see them experiencing their first love and heartbreak, and you see them grieving the death of their beloved ones.
They age, they live, they die.
Stories of friendship and forbidden love and marriages and kids growing up to be parents and commotion and warmth and enmity and laughter and tears... this book is a hero of its own.
I’ll go and pack my bags, see ya.
P.S. Go read this book right now or I’ll write a review with ALL the spoilers and no warnings😏
Yep. I am that evil. And cheesy.
I would do anything to travel back in time and live there.
I went into this little book with honestly no high expectations. It was meant to be a chilled out collection of short stories. But when you get into it, oh my god.
It’s a collection of 12 stories, featuring the residents of Bosco Mansion, a hundred-and-five years old, rickety building comprising of 6 flats over 3 floors, where you will be bound to leave your heart.
The stories of these residents is woven beautifully with each other. They are the most regular people ever - gossiping, gardening, eating pao, fighting and loving. But even a peek into their life will make your heart feel so full. There’s a sense of belongingness that develops when you finish. This book feels like home.
The good old Bombay is shown in the most heartwarming manner ever. The story begins in 1940s, when Bombay isn’t the glamorous cosmopolitan capital as we know of it now, but just a newborn baby of the independent India. Though it’s still filled with people with different accents and fish mongers. And though it’s still as charming as ever with the same soul at heart.
All the characters and their stories are handled with such perfection that I am obsessed. The side kick of the protagonist in one story is the hero in the next, some knots are made in one story and are untangled in the fourth one, and at the same time it’s made sure that all of these residents and their lives don’t go unnoticed.
In a short span of some 200 or so pages, you grow up with the characters. You see them having a crush in their teen years or losing a beloved pencil in a commotion, and then you see them in their old age, complaining about their kids who wouldn’t come back from Canada or getting a job to make crosswords for a world famous newspaper at the age of 50. Phew.
You see them experiencing their first love and heartbreak, and you see them grieving the death of their beloved ones.
They age, they live, they die.
Stories of friendship and forbidden love and marriages and kids growing up to be parents and commotion and warmth and enmity and laughter and tears... this book is a hero of its own.
I’ll go and pack my bags, see ya.
P.S. Go read this book right now or I’ll write a review with ALL the spoilers and no warnings😏
Yep. I am that evil. And cheesy.
December 14, 2020
Felt like I was being hugged by a donut 💙
February 22, 2022
I have never felt represented by Bollywood. To Bollywood, a typical Christian woman wears dresses, doesn’t know Hindi, has a drunk father, ends her sentences with ‘men’, and has no scruples or morals. The anti-hero generally cheats on his wife with a loose charactered Miss Braganza or the heroine takes to substances because of the bad influence of her best friend Lorna Pinto.
When I’d see this representation in films, I’d feel upset, ignored, pigeonholed, typecast into a mold that doesn't fit me. Up until now, I had never come across a movie or book which depicts the catholic community from an insider’s lens. I had never found an artistic piece in mainstream media that understands that a Goan catholic is culturally different from a Mangalorean catholic or follows different traditions as compared with an East Indian catholic. I had never, experienced a cinematic piece or book that plays out catholic food beyond the Daru wala (rum) cake.
.
.
Jane Borges’s Bombay Balchao brings to the forefront the stories, culture, and experiences of an often sidelined and typecast community. Set in Bombay, in a small tucked-away colony called Cavel, this book covers the stories of the residents of Bosco Mansion and Lobo Mansion. Created like a literary balchao (prawn pickle) of sorts the stories flit across decades, keeping Michael Coutinho central to the narrative. Written as a series of short stories with recurring main characters, this book will warm your heart, stir up your appetite, bring back your jiving days, and remind you of your grandmother, especially if she used to make Balchao.
Bombay Balchao is a masterpiece and will be enjoyed by anyone who loves good stories, great humour, nostalgia, and Bombay.
When I’d see this representation in films, I’d feel upset, ignored, pigeonholed, typecast into a mold that doesn't fit me. Up until now, I had never come across a movie or book which depicts the catholic community from an insider’s lens. I had never found an artistic piece in mainstream media that understands that a Goan catholic is culturally different from a Mangalorean catholic or follows different traditions as compared with an East Indian catholic. I had never, experienced a cinematic piece or book that plays out catholic food beyond the Daru wala (rum) cake.
.
.
Jane Borges’s Bombay Balchao brings to the forefront the stories, culture, and experiences of an often sidelined and typecast community. Set in Bombay, in a small tucked-away colony called Cavel, this book covers the stories of the residents of Bosco Mansion and Lobo Mansion. Created like a literary balchao (prawn pickle) of sorts the stories flit across decades, keeping Michael Coutinho central to the narrative. Written as a series of short stories with recurring main characters, this book will warm your heart, stir up your appetite, bring back your jiving days, and remind you of your grandmother, especially if she used to make Balchao.
Bombay Balchao is a masterpiece and will be enjoyed by anyone who loves good stories, great humour, nostalgia, and Bombay.
June 21, 2020
The lives of ordinary people become extraordinary when seen through the eyes of an author. Bombay Balchao is one such set of stories from a Christian neighborhood of South Bombay. Written in the form of short columns, telling one tale at a time, the narration is like colony gossip, tracing the history of a person back to their parental generation and from there bringing it to present in one neat stroke of line. The columns move back and forth in time making it hard to connect the dots. Too many characters are introduced like any neighborhood that you feel the need to remember all their names to understand the events, but in the end the story selects its lead characters itself and the history comes back to a circle before ending with this generation. The accounts are hilarious, and will make you laugh out loud, there are characters you'll love and characters you'll hate, but by the time the book comes to an end you'll feel connected to all of them like your own family or friend. The last few columns are connected and are in chronological order that brings everything together and gives a sense of closure.
The book is a beautiful account of changing culture and architecture of Mumbai. Author tells the culture, history and ethnicity of many communities present within the Christian community of Mumbai, through the history of her characters. It is a beautiful book in terms of its love and nostalgia for Bombay, and a hilarious read for lazy Sundays when you want to pick up something light hearted and relatable.
The book is a beautiful account of changing culture and architecture of Mumbai. Author tells the culture, history and ethnicity of many communities present within the Christian community of Mumbai, through the history of her characters. It is a beautiful book in terms of its love and nostalgia for Bombay, and a hilarious read for lazy Sundays when you want to pick up something light hearted and relatable.
July 3, 2024
An underrated gem!
Simple, delightful and lovely stories of the residents of Bosco Mansion (Bombay) in different times, different situations and different mindsets.
Each of the 12 stories is an account of an incident or connected incidents happening with one of the families in the Bosco Mansion and is interconnected with one another in some way. When you put it all together you get a sense of the overall story and the things that each character has been through.
My favourite chapter is the letter exchange between Michael and Ellena. There are many other amusing and heart-warming (and sometimes heartbreaking) ones like the one with exorcism, The Water Fiasco, A Friend Called Joe and the final titular chapter.
A fun and fast read which leaves you wanting more, you don't want to leave Michael or Ellena or Annette or Mario alone. You want to hear more of their stories. Also the audiobook narration by Meher Acharia Dar is lovely and on point. Her tone changes according to the emotion of the story were impeccable. Her accents and the sarcastic tone were really hilarious.
Here's hoping a little that there comes a sequel with more stories (however improbable it is)....
Simple, delightful and lovely stories of the residents of Bosco Mansion (Bombay) in different times, different situations and different mindsets.
Each of the 12 stories is an account of an incident or connected incidents happening with one of the families in the Bosco Mansion and is interconnected with one another in some way. When you put it all together you get a sense of the overall story and the things that each character has been through.
My favourite chapter is the letter exchange between Michael and Ellena. There are many other amusing and heart-warming (and sometimes heartbreaking) ones like the one with exorcism, The Water Fiasco, A Friend Called Joe and the final titular chapter.
A fun and fast read which leaves you wanting more, you don't want to leave Michael or Ellena or Annette or Mario alone. You want to hear more of their stories. Also the audiobook narration by Meher Acharia Dar is lovely and on point. Her tone changes according to the emotion of the story were impeccable. Her accents and the sarcastic tone were really hilarious.
Here's hoping a little that there comes a sequel with more stories (however improbable it is)....
July 13, 2021
The book consists of 12 stories/chapters revolving around the D'Lima street in Cavel, Mumbai particulary set in the Bosco mansion, home to Goan, Mangalorean and local Christian families who called themselves the East Indians. The book starts with "Paper Hearts" which is narrated in first person by Michael Countinho about his love Tracey. All the remaning stories revolves around Michael, his family and the other people in Bosco mansion with Michael as the central character. All in all, this book is an absolutely delectable read.
The author captures the readers by her story narration, and the setting and language. You end up chuckling with most of the stories, but there a couple of poignant stories too which balances the book very well. Overall I enjoyed the book a whole lot. Go for this book and I can assure you won't regret reading this one.
The author captures the readers by her story narration, and the setting and language. You end up chuckling with most of the stories, but there a couple of poignant stories too which balances the book very well. Overall I enjoyed the book a whole lot. Go for this book and I can assure you won't regret reading this one.
November 27, 2020
So damn adorable! I read this one while in Goa and what a thrill it was! Every character here is etched out so well and their eccentricities are as delicious as the balchao.
Detailed review coming soon.
Detailed review coming soon.
September 11, 2022
Towards the very end of the book did I come to know that Balchao is actually Goan prawn pickle dish made by marinating prawns in oil and spices. Why this was the most relevant takeaway for me is that I felt that the multitude of characters needed more time to marinate for them to come together.
Set in the Goan - East Indian Christian settlement near Cavall in Bombay, the book talks about the families that live in one settlement the Bosco house. Slice of life writing that is both funny and coloured, the book jumps timelines and characters. It took me 3-4 chapters to realise the same characters will come in different stories and the connection was important. If you are one of those people who can't remember the name of the distant uncle's second son, then you will have problems with this book.
The language of the community is a mix of marathi and English. The silent fights between Mangalore Goans and East Indians was a backdrop for two families to come together. While the main character appears to be Michael's family, there are too many characters, histories and the chapters are not coherent either. Sometime I felt like I was reading the gossip column of a local community.
The book transports you to a time and place and does complete justice to it. However, characters are more loosely handled with too many tangential references to other characters that keeps your investment low.
Felt like a long shot view of a neighborhood.
Set in the Goan - East Indian Christian settlement near Cavall in Bombay, the book talks about the families that live in one settlement the Bosco house. Slice of life writing that is both funny and coloured, the book jumps timelines and characters. It took me 3-4 chapters to realise the same characters will come in different stories and the connection was important. If you are one of those people who can't remember the name of the distant uncle's second son, then you will have problems with this book.
The language of the community is a mix of marathi and English. The silent fights between Mangalore Goans and East Indians was a backdrop for two families to come together. While the main character appears to be Michael's family, there are too many characters, histories and the chapters are not coherent either. Sometime I felt like I was reading the gossip column of a local community.
The book transports you to a time and place and does complete justice to it. However, characters are more loosely handled with too many tangential references to other characters that keeps your investment low.
Felt like a long shot view of a neighborhood.
June 4, 2020
This book was such a delightful surprise! I really enjoyed the writing , the stories , the characters and I loved how the author brought alive this rich part of Mumbai’s melting pot of a heritage.
July 6, 2020
A series of interlinked stories all set in the small Catholic enclave of Cavel in Southern Bombay, Bombay Balchao is another great addition to that unique Indian literature subgenre- the Bombay novel. Author Jane Borges gives a great insight into the city's Catholic community (East Indians, Goans, Mangaloreans) through non-linear short stories, which each act to paint a picture of some of the various residents of the Bosco mansion, that ultimately comes together to form a larger picture of the city from Independence to the modern time through the eyes of the community. I found the stories to be greatly amusing, sharp, and not lacking for punch, very much like the titular balchão pickle. In my opinion, this novel is another great addition to the Bombay novel subgenre.
December 6, 2020
Time heals the broken. Sometimes, the healing is slow. Sometimes, it is slower. You cannot predict how long it will take before one forgets what it all felt like—heartbreak, the pain, the anguish, and that emptiness. Years could roll by, and you’d have done ten million different things to keep yourself from thinking, and yet, the mind would remember that moment when your life fell apart and crushed you whole. Then one day, while lying on your bed, the fan whirring above you in circles, you’d try and dredge up that old feeling, simply out of boredom, but find you couldn’t.
This beautiful book which is a story about Bombay and the Catholics in the Gaywadi/Chira Bazar area is an absolute delight. Jane Borges is a talented writer and the way she spins words in the stories are absolutely awesome! I am in love with her!
‘Why do you worry about the oil? Pickles are anyway supposed to be relished only in small portions. Life is like that, my baby. The best part cannot be enjoyed whole, or it will become too much for you to digest.’
This book is unlike any of the books I've read this year and it's such an endearing, relatable, sweet read that my heart just melted at the end of it!
In Conclusion
A very unique book with an engaging narrative. Love Jane Borges!
This beautiful book which is a story about Bombay and the Catholics in the Gaywadi/Chira Bazar area is an absolute delight. Jane Borges is a talented writer and the way she spins words in the stories are absolutely awesome! I am in love with her!
‘Why do you worry about the oil? Pickles are anyway supposed to be relished only in small portions. Life is like that, my baby. The best part cannot be enjoyed whole, or it will become too much for you to digest.’
This book is unlike any of the books I've read this year and it's such an endearing, relatable, sweet read that my heart just melted at the end of it!
In Conclusion
A very unique book with an engaging narrative. Love Jane Borges!
July 18, 2021
When I look at my bookshelf, (the real one, not Goodreads) I realize that most of the books from Indian authors are male. Where are the Indian women authors? I have been on a quest to rediscover more of them. Jane Borges is the result of such a quest.
‘Bombay Balchao’ is her ode to Mumbai, to the human spirit, and nostalgia. I thought this was a series of short stories, and I wasn’t too wrong. But it’s not really that. It’s more a series of vignettes carefully and lovingly presented to us of life in Cavel. Culturally rich and astute, I enjoyed every bit of this. Simple, sweet, and kind. Heartwarming. :-) :-)
‘Bombay Balchao’ is her ode to Mumbai, to the human spirit, and nostalgia. I thought this was a series of short stories, and I wasn’t too wrong. But it’s not really that. It’s more a series of vignettes carefully and lovingly presented to us of life in Cavel. Culturally rich and astute, I enjoyed every bit of this. Simple, sweet, and kind. Heartwarming. :-) :-)
March 6, 2020
There is love and heartbreak, madness and genius, hatred and reconciliation...and all the flavours of life itself, in this through-the-years exploration of a Goan community in South Mumbai. Borges evokes a sense of place and time beautifully as you laugh and cry along with her superbly crafted set of characters. Haven’t been so charmed by a book in quite a while.
July 7, 2020
Bought this at a random Indian airport because the cover was cute and every other book they had was something I either read or was not interested in and this was the only one that looked good but it wasn’t that bad but it didn’t manage to keep me reading it throughout the flight
April 27, 2021
Super boring and bland. There are better books with characters that leap from the page. I found the characters lifeless and stories that ended abruptly. This wasn’t the book for me.
April 11, 2024
Had come across this book in a quiz question and recently picked it up at Kitab Khana. Jane Borges tells a fictionalised tale of the migrant Goan RC community in the close-knit Bombay neighbourhood of Cavel at D'Lima Street.
She tells every day stories of fictional characters from the 1930s to present day. There are stories of jilted lovers, teenagers growing up, death, weddings, NRIs, old age, and unrequited love.
I liked the social dynamics portrayed between the East Indian catholics, and the migrant Goan catholics and Mangalorean catholics. Characters are developed throughout the tales in the book. The writing has a dash of 'Goan RC' lingo that is well done and does not border on the stereotypical; although at the same time, is not necessarily very reflective of everyday life in Goa.
A nice breezy read!
She tells every day stories of fictional characters from the 1930s to present day. There are stories of jilted lovers, teenagers growing up, death, weddings, NRIs, old age, and unrequited love.
I liked the social dynamics portrayed between the East Indian catholics, and the migrant Goan catholics and Mangalorean catholics. Characters are developed throughout the tales in the book. The writing has a dash of 'Goan RC' lingo that is well done and does not border on the stereotypical; although at the same time, is not necessarily very reflective of everyday life in Goa.
A nice breezy read!
August 21, 2020
Kindle Unlimited at times has these small little surprises in store for you.
I really really enjoyed reading this collection of interlinked short stories about a housing colony in Mumbai. It covers the stories from 1945 till 2010 so well and there is a lot of real storytelling here. Living in a convention apartment the last three years, I have seen a few of the things that are described in this book quite a bit, but I am sure the Bombay apartments are totally different deal.
I really really enjoyed reading this collection of interlinked short stories about a housing colony in Mumbai. It covers the stories from 1945 till 2010 so well and there is a lot of real storytelling here. Living in a convention apartment the last three years, I have seen a few of the things that are described in this book quite a bit, but I am sure the Bombay apartments are totally different deal.
July 3, 2024
Art is supposed to imitate life; but have you ever felt so ~seen~ by a piece of art, that experiencing it literally felt like coming home? This book was that piece of art for me. While reading it, there were multiple times when I didn't know what to do with my hands: cover my mouth to stifle a gasp? Use it to hold back a chuckle? Wipe a tear? Or simply clutch the book to my chest out of sheer love? I did all this and more. Jane Borges spun a web of stories so relatable to Bombay Christians, filled with characters so real, I swear I could have met them. She deftly weaves history with fiction with memory with imagination with nostalgia with cultural trivia with universal romance. One may be tempted to compare this work with Cisneros's The House on Mango Street, in that this too is a novel made of vignettes told in non-linear fashion, yet interconnected with a chronologically traceable plot. For me, the similarities were more in terms of how each writer tackled the idea of home as place and home as belonging. For both Borges and Cisneros, home is also people, not just those who live in it, but around it. And it is the stories of these people, their lives and loves that allow us to return to (with a deeper understanding of) our own lives and loves. And homes. Always homes.
September 17, 2021
OK GUYS THIS BOOK??
its equal parts endearing and humorous?? the ensemble of cast is so well thought out and written?? the way this concept of writing a book like this had never even occurred to me?? i know im going to love it even more on my reread but for now this will have to suffice.
its equal parts endearing and humorous?? the ensemble of cast is so well thought out and written?? the way this concept of writing a book like this had never even occurred to me?? i know im going to love it even more on my reread but for now this will have to suffice.
February 7, 2021
Bombay Balchao is the kind of book that will resonate with you if you have any sort of sentimentality about Mumbai and specifically with Goan Catholic community. Given my long association with them through various friends and family, I couldn’t resist chuckling throughout at Borges’ spot-on characterizations and local lingo, coupled with a beautiful examining of human relations from a different era over time. Michael could be your grandfather, Ellena could be that spinster aunt, and Mario could be the brother you were always compared to, growing up as an Indian child. The stories were funny and heartfelt, and the book was just the right length to devour in two sittings. I loved it! My only point would be that the writer naturally tends to complicate her sentences and words, which sometimes came across as too high-brow for the text, which could have done with simplicity a la Ruskin Bond. Still a fantastic read though.
August 1, 2024
Felt like eating my fav dessert
November 13, 2020
The story starts with a character named Michael Coutinho who is recalling an eventful day from seventy years ago. On the same day, he witnessed a miracle which will be remembered for years to come and lost his childhood love to heaven. He recalls the times he spent with the love of his youth and how the miraculous man of the miracle confessed his sin to him in private after staying mum for a couple of decades.
In the next chapter, we are introduced to Annette Coutinho, Michael’s sister and her two lovers on her wedding day, one of whom is Michael’s only closest friend and the other his to-be enemy. It’s on her wedding day that she chooses one among the two lovers, leaving the rejected one die at an old age after being rejected by Annette for the second time.
In the following chapters, we are also introduced to Mario Lawrence, the shy kid of the neighbourhood whose voice almost nobody had heard or could remember anymore. He is a talented artist who after a brutal heartbreak takes to forget about his previous life and turns into a lonely man surviving on the crosswords puzzles from the newspaper.
The other two important characters that we have are Merlyn, Michael’s wife and Ellena Gomes, Michael’s unexpected one-sided lover whose affection for Michael is only made known to him after years of fighting each other, during the late seventies of their life and after the death of his wife.
These characters are all connected through bonds of love and friendship and through sharing the same building or same locality, that is, Pope’s Colony. Borges has carved her characters into living beings out of thin air and how explicitly! Each of their personality traits and their backstories has been given due attention, flowering them into the images we see when we look into the mirror.
Bombay Balchao is as much about Bombay’s cultural heritage and its past and present as it is about the effect of love on the life of the social beings, us humans. The less explored communities of Goan Catholics, Mangalorean Catholics and the East Indian Catholics; the battle of the Portuguese and the Marathas have been pictured with bright colours and familiar sounds and smells. It’s surprising that we haven’t read about these subjects earlier.
It is one of the best books I have read this year. The portion and the following batter of each component in the book were apt, making the book as informative as it was fun to read. Praises to the Borges on her writing. There couldn’t have been a better writer to explore these subjects with such ease and familiarity. Everything about the book, from the concept to the execution, was perfect. Jane, if you are reading this, we need more books from you.
Ratings-
Concept- 4.7/5
Plot- 4.8/5
Characterisation- 4.8/5
Flow- 4.7/5
Feels- 4.8/5
Narration- 5/5
Inclusive Ratings- 4.8/5
In the next chapter, we are introduced to Annette Coutinho, Michael’s sister and her two lovers on her wedding day, one of whom is Michael’s only closest friend and the other his to-be enemy. It’s on her wedding day that she chooses one among the two lovers, leaving the rejected one die at an old age after being rejected by Annette for the second time.
In the following chapters, we are also introduced to Mario Lawrence, the shy kid of the neighbourhood whose voice almost nobody had heard or could remember anymore. He is a talented artist who after a brutal heartbreak takes to forget about his previous life and turns into a lonely man surviving on the crosswords puzzles from the newspaper.
The other two important characters that we have are Merlyn, Michael’s wife and Ellena Gomes, Michael’s unexpected one-sided lover whose affection for Michael is only made known to him after years of fighting each other, during the late seventies of their life and after the death of his wife.
These characters are all connected through bonds of love and friendship and through sharing the same building or same locality, that is, Pope’s Colony. Borges has carved her characters into living beings out of thin air and how explicitly! Each of their personality traits and their backstories has been given due attention, flowering them into the images we see when we look into the mirror.
Bombay Balchao is as much about Bombay’s cultural heritage and its past and present as it is about the effect of love on the life of the social beings, us humans. The less explored communities of Goan Catholics, Mangalorean Catholics and the East Indian Catholics; the battle of the Portuguese and the Marathas have been pictured with bright colours and familiar sounds and smells. It’s surprising that we haven’t read about these subjects earlier.
It is one of the best books I have read this year. The portion and the following batter of each component in the book were apt, making the book as informative as it was fun to read. Praises to the Borges on her writing. There couldn’t have been a better writer to explore these subjects with such ease and familiarity. Everything about the book, from the concept to the execution, was perfect. Jane, if you are reading this, we need more books from you.
Ratings-
Concept- 4.7/5
Plot- 4.8/5
Characterisation- 4.8/5
Flow- 4.7/5
Feels- 4.8/5
Narration- 5/5
Inclusive Ratings- 4.8/5
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