Suketa Metha's account of his search for the city of his youth takes us into the underbelly of Bombay (or, if you prefer, Mumbai).India as a whole, and Bombay in particular, is one of those distant, mythical places that we as Westerners may never understand. To me, it is one of those places I want to one day visit but my idea of it is very abstract and clouded by stories in book and film, that can only ever capture a tiny fragment of this unknown world.
The book is split into three parts. In the first one the author interviews a multitude of "bad guys" that run the city as an alternative governing body and one of the policemen that tries to fight crime rather than arrange himself with the gangsters.
Part two is about the bar dancers and Bollywood, but reaches back into part one again and again, because the criminal vanes of Bombay run through those worlds, as well.
The final part tells the story of a Jain family that decides to leave all earthly comfort behind - a stark contrast to the lives described in parts one and two.
Fascinating.
7/10
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