If you want a quick introduction to Bombay that is an easy and short read, you can do no worse than get this book. Just a little more in size than the “Reader’s Digest”, its production values are top-class,  a hallmark of Aleph. I found the numbering of pages, on the side margins novel and arresting.

Until fairly recently there were few good books on the city, except for Gillian Tindall’s classic City of Gold and the definitive, majestic Bombay: The Cities Within by architect Rahul Mehrotra and Sharada Dwivedi. There have also been very readable personalised accounts like Maximum City and Shantaram.

City Adrift falls in between these two categories. It combines history with a distinct view on where the metropolis is heading. The author echoes how famed architect and town planner Charles Correa, a Bombay resident, characterised the city—a great place, but terrible to live in. Its greatness lies in the wonderfully rich mix of communities and cultures, from the original Kolis (fisherfolk), the Maharashtrians, the Gujaratis, the Konkanis, the Portuguese, the East Indians (of which the author is one), the British, the Goans, the Jews, Armenians, Parsis, various denomination of Muslims, and more recently, south Indians, Biharis, UPites and Punjabis.

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However, I do not go along with his somewhat pessimistic conclusion. That Bombay has somehow lost its moorings and is adrift, in danger of hitting the rocks. It has survived the bomb blasts, the terror attack and the Shiv Sena, without losing its essential character of tolerance, diversity and amity.