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by Jerry Pinto (Editor), Shanta Gokhale (Editor)
'You cannot catch a city in words. You cannot catch a city at all, ' write the editors
of this anthology. So how do you get the spirit of India's great metropolis, the
Maya Nagari, the city of dreams, between the covers of a book? Shanta Gokhale
and Jerry Pinto decide to bring together their favourite short stories about the
city they call home, and hope that a narrative will emerge. And it does-a rich,
varied, vibrant portrait of the republic that goes by many names-Bombay,
Mumbai, Momoi, Bambai and many others.
In the twenty-one stories of this collection, there is the city that labours in the
mills and streets, and the city that sips and nibbles in five-star lounges; the city
of Ganapati and Haji Malang and the Virgin Mary; the city that is a sea of people
and speaks at least a dozen languages. There are stories translated from Marathi,
Urdu, Gujarati, Tamil, Hindi, Kannada, Malayalam, and stories written originally
in English. Among the writers are legends and new voices-Baburao Bagul,
Ismat Chughtai, Pu La Deshpande, Urmila Pawar, Mohan Rakesh,
Saadat Hasan Manto, Ambai, Jayant Kaikini, Bhupen Khakhar, Cyrus
Mistry, Vilas Sarang, Tejaswini Apte-Rahm and Anuradha Kumar.
Maya Nagari is a majestic book on a majestic city. It will be read and cherished for
years.
