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Urban Voice 3: Bombay
Price: Rs. 195; Pages: 186
ISBN: 81-88811-68-8
In the City of Dreams
That there is a multitude of writings available on and about Mumbai, more now than ever before, is not surprising. The city forms an opinion in your mind before you can even breathe in the humid air wrapped deeply around its fish. So much so that sometimes even the most obvious bring out musings and yearnings that we hope sound different. These voices are many as Urban Voices 3 showcases earnestly.
Unfortunately, not much is fresh or newly baked. Most voices sound world-weary and worn not just with Mumbai but sometimes even with life. Is that the irony of Mumbai or the choice of writings, you decide.
But what makes this volume worth riffling through is a heart-felt attempt at bringing different genres of writings on Mumbai under a single pointed roof. An interesting selection of writers, film-makers, journalists and poets takes you through a city that is beloved to them.
Here poems mingle with ponderings and short stories meander through the narrow, clustered by-lanes of Mumbai bumping into dialogues, at turns.
The city, one of extreme contrasts, flutters between subjects as varied as Muses Over Manholes (by Murzban F. Shroff) related through the eyes of a despondent and repeatedly rejected writer standing on the rain-drenched streets and the very metropolitan Prickly Solution (by Dilip Raote) set in a typical Mumbai high-rise home. While these two writings are in no way definitive of the collection, they give an indication of the width and depth of a city constantly at play.
What is missing perhaps is a affectionate perspective, an inkling of which is offered in Vimla Patil's Magical Memories, a warm piece that delves into a nostalgic, gentler past of this frenetic City (by Abha Iyenger) ... "enchantress, seductress, nibbler of souls, monstrous maw, et al".
However, more often than not, the selection reiterates the cliche's that Mumbai has come to stand though the structure and layout of this magazine-style volume is a special endeavour to break stereotypes. When viewed within this framework, the two interviews included come as a pleasant surprise and addition. Unluckily, the first one with Time Out magazine's editor Naresh Fernandes toes a predictable unruffled line of questioning while the other with poet Sudeep Sen is too indulgent to provoke energetic debate.
Nevertheless, Urban Voices 3 is worth a look. It may not be in the same class as the must-reads on the city like Maximum City : Bombay Lost and Found (Suketu Mehta) or the heady-paced Shantaram (Gregory David Roberts) but it introduces something new and invigorating towards growing writings on Mumbai, much like the city herself.
— Gayatri Rajwade / The Tribune
Urban Voice 3: Bombay (Frog Books, 2008, pp 185, Rs 195) Capturing the radical transformation that is occurring in the Indian literary scene, this book has provided a platform for thinkers to express themselves.
— Deccan Herald
Mumbai, Cutting it Fine
The third volume of writings on Mumbai has pen portraits of a city that Bollywood has already told us enough about. It offers variety, but not much style, writes Shana Maria Verghis
Roselyn D' Mello's poem 'Absolution' presents a familiar image of Mumbai to an outsider like oneself. It refers to "the enchanting sight of the sordid landscape rolling / through the barred windows of a local train;" And "....cigarettes all dangling on display in sync. ..with the / wavering sounds of a flute being played by a man with / black, painted nails at Colaba Causeway.' Then it gets more tactile, with: "the perennial confected aroma of freshly baked apple / pie (with cinnamon and raisins) at the blue-coloured Yazdan bakery; /...frankies at Linking Road, tickling sheikh pao at Premier/road Naka...pao bhaji at Khao Galli/ragda pattice at Elcos..."
'Absolution' has been included in a collection, Urban Voice 3: Bombay, New Writing (Frog Books), which picks up various strands of the city by 31 writers, journalists, poets and film makers who seem to know it well.
D'Mello we are told in the acknowledgement, is 22 years and lives in Delhi. But the first piece in the book is by Monideepa Sahu. Her short story 'Going Home in the Rain' reminds us about Ruchi Narain's short in the yet-to-be-released portmanteau film, Mumbai Cutting. Here you have a newcomer to the city and an autodriver who turns out to be less sinister than her imagination.
Rajender Menen's 'Loving and Deliverance in Kamathipura', seemed, to our jaded reading, like another of those "brave prostitute life stories." Ramendra Kumar's 'Mumbai 2020', is the only bit of comic relief in this set. He writes of Aamchi Mumbai in 2020 and thinly veiled references to 'Raja of Maratharashtra', Raj Thokoray watching an India Cup Twenty-Twenty final between Marathas and Ulta Pradesh.
By this time, the writer says, India has been spliced into 28 nations with a separatist movement by doodhwalas in Jharkand demanding new states called Doodhkhand, Dahikand and Shreekahand. There's a language problem all over. 'Rajnikaat' has been pushed out by Chennai for being Marathi. Marathis disown him for working in Bangaluru and Tamil Nadu. 'Amitabhi Bachha', now 77 is making it big in Bhojpuri movies. But back in Mumbai a Marathi version of Sholay is burnt for hurting Sena sensibilities with a line: 'Tera Kya Hoga, Sambha', which apparently insults 'Sambhaji — the Bhau of the nation.'
Atin Dasgupta makes a point with 'Rupees 42 Profit,' where an "upright citizen" yammers on about beggars then helps himself to loose change from an elderly beggar woman's bowl.
Derek Bose's 'Stones in My Mouth' is about exorbitant fees at Nanavati hospital versus proper healing at a cheaper place, with surgery bills costing one-fourth the price.
Some pieces like Joy C Raphael's 'Local Guardian' and Anjali Purohit's 'The Subway' and 'Bombayana' by Freny Manecksha are observations about people in stations, on the street.
Murzban F Shroff's 'Muses over Manholes' reads like one of those godawfully self-indulgent I-am-a-writer-let-me-bore-you-with-my-writer-travails-and-leave-you-with-nothing-else-to-take-back meanderings. While Sunil K Poolani's 'Missing that Nagging Feeling' is written in the voice of a recently divorced man who sounds like he enjoys being a pain in his wife's arse.
There are two interviews. With poet Sudeep Sen and Time Out Mumbai's Naresh Fernandes. The latter unfortunately does not give you anything new about the city. And the former is so flowery it could have done with massive editing.
Dilip Raote makes no bones about being influenced by Roald Dahl's stories about precocious children giving it back to annoying adults in 'A Prickly Solution'. His protagonist, a little girl Geetika, who puts a hole with her compass into her dad's condom, leading to her mom's unwanted pregnancy seems motivated only by boredom. Vimla Patil editor of Femina for nearly 25 years reminisces about local herbs in 'Magical Memories'. Abhinav Maurya pays tribute to 'The Oldest Bombay Bitch', the Bombay Rail. Riya Terri's 'The Day I Found The Real Me' should not have left the writer's personal diary.
As portraits of the city, most do their job. In terms of stylistic storytelling, however the writings are a bit passé and some are guilty of being very lazily written. Several should have been trashed.
— The Sunday Pioneer
Mumbai Melange
There is a clamouring din out there, many voices are shrilling, the blind groping the elephant are confusing it with its tail or trunk. City-specific perspectives can make an interesting collage as never-before angles loom to the fore, dark corners are lit and one is forced to pursue visions otherwise disturbing or baffling.
A cross between a magazine and book, Urban Voice 3 zips through the much-maligned, much-adored city, well, maligning and adoring. Monideepa Sahu’s ‘Going Home In The Rain’ rides an auto through the menacing monsoons, from a crowded railway platform to a plate of hot samosas with mint chutney. “It was good to be home,” she tells us.
And Mumbai is home to millions from all over the world. They have adapted to its potholes and rains and crowds and the last local and a description of any of these may not evoke the right level of awe. These are a given, an almost endearing trait of an adopted or natural terrain. To have, however articulately forwarded, view after view dwell on karma, train travails and the overflowing drains can feel a bit repetitive despite the undeniable fact that they are true. Mumbai as a concept can stand deconstruction, but may barely be able to brave the clichés coming its way.
Thankfully, there are multiple inflections here; from the familiar landmarks like the Gateway of India to the subtle nuances of a newly-christened cowardice, the searchlight sways in its focus. Rajender Menen’s ‘Love And Deliverance In Kamathipura’ ducks into an alley where Tara twinkles among the debauched, destroyed lives around her. Jane Bhandari stirs this Mumbai mélange when she says in ‘Meri Jaan’: “Mumbai is Bombay/Sounds fatter to me”.
Perhaps it is the format — of mixing stories with essays and even an interview where we are twice informed of Sudeep Sen’s website and his poetry collection is alternately called ‘Postmaked India’ and ‘Postmarked India’ — that disorients.When Urban Voice “aims to capture the thrilling transformation (in India’s literary scene) by creating a platform for thinkers to capture ‘next-in-line’ trends and go beyond”, expectations prise open this big ugly maw.
— Shinie Antony / DNA
Bombay book : This fortnight's addition to our shelves
Frog Books' Urban Voice 3 features new writing from Mumbai. The opening piece, by Monideepa Sahu, is about an auto ride and there are pieces about riding the train, buying a train ticket and about the pedestrian subway outside Churchgate railway station. The series' editor Sunil K Poolani says it aims to be a "platform for thinkers to capture 'next-in-line' trends and go beyond."
— Time Out Mumbai
Touches a chord
Urban voice 3: Bombay brings together “writings from and on Bombay”. There are short stories, poems and even the odd interview, but they have nothing new to offer, save clichéd themes depicting this bustling metropolis. Thus, we encounter (again!) tales about Bombay’s resilience after the bomb blasts, the warmth of its people, Bollywood, and so on. Vimla Patil’s “Magical memories”, surprisingly, touches a chord, with its earnest longing for a world made of tile-roofed houses, old temples and curative herbs that is now lost forever.
— The Telegraph
Bollywood Dreams
Prasenjit Shome
Price: 95; Pages: 88
ISBN: 81-88811-75-0
Is a tale of ambition, compromise and betrayal in the pursuit of Bollywood dreams.
— Savvy
Through the character of Anita, the book tells the story of ambition — an ambition that carries forth many struck by the promise of fame, but sees very few through that arduous climb.
— The Free Press Journal
A tale of betrayal, loneliness and angst
— The Asian Age / Deccan Chronicle
Rape, Regret & Retribution
Subrata Das
Price: 145; Pages: 100
ISBN: 81-88811-74-2
A bold and realistic portrayal and ramification of a horror event that shatters the lives of two ordinary families in different Indian social strata
— The Free Press Journal
Frying Pan and Other Stories
Raja
Price: 145; Pages: 128
ISBN: 81-88811-77-7
Each story in this collection has a moral and an appeal of its own that can reach people from various strata of life.
— The Free Press Journal
Civil Disobedience Movements in India
C V H Rao
Price: 250; Pages: 260
ISBN: 81-88811-38-6
A politically legitimate theory
Excessive obedience can prove to be very fatal, especially in terms of a nation’s intellectual and psychological evolution, which is exactly why agitation seems a natural and survivalist approach in unjust situations. What is even more important is how successful is one’s agitation. It is with all these queries in mind, along with others of course, that one might want to put their hands on C.V.H. Rao's Civil Disobedience Movements in India. The book is a rationally charted rendering of the operations and achievements of the non-violent civil disobedience movement in pre-partition India — a movement which was initiated by Mahatma Gandhi to materialise the idea of India’s independence.
Rao, a much respected newspaper editor of pre-Independence India, eulogises Mahatma Gandhi’s role in the efforts for India’s emancipation from the British Raj and lauds as to how, when employed by him, the non-cooperation movement ‘acquired realistic significance’ as an instrument to convey political discontent. It was precisely because of its becoming effective in Gandhi’s hands that the method became popular among the unarmed Indians. Gandhi’s belief that politics and morality go hand in hand was implemented and it dominated his work ethics as a politician. Rao clearly states how Gandhi executed his beliefs about the relationship between politics and morality through the Indian National Congress.
It was first in 1919 that Gandhi effectively influenced the Indian National Congress to pursue a non-militant, non-violent path, precisely the path of civil disobedience, of ‘Satyagraha’, literally translated as ‘insistence on truth’. By 1920, he had successfully secured the active cooperation of the Ali Brothers as well as the Indian National Congress after they had lost faith in the Raj. The loss of faith was the result of various grievances including the 1919 Jallianwala Bagh tragedy, Turkey and the Khilafat’s lot, and most fundamentally, Britain’s heedlessness to India’s need for self-dependence or Swaraj.
Gandhi’s leadership led the Indians to adopt the Nagpur resolution, as a result of which foreign goods were boycotted among other things, processions and meetings were held to bring to realisation the idea that Indians must seek compensation for whatever wrongs they have been subjected to. Also, ‘non-payment of taxes was to be the culminating item of the programme.’
The cause of Swaraj brought the diverse religious factions of India under one flag and Gandhi and the Ali brothers spread the Swaraj message through non-violent civil disobedience throughout the Indian sub-continent. However, the occurrence of riots during processions carried out by Congress volunteers at Chauri-Chaura, Chennai, Viramgaum and Ahmedabad were upsetting for the Mahatma. Gandhi then decided that the campaign needs to be stopped temporarily. He was arrested in 1922 and was sentenced to six years in prison from which he was released in 1924. Gandhi had also concluded by that time that Congressmen were more interested in parliamentary activity than in a non-cooperation agenda. Rao also refers to Gandhi’s violation of the Salt Laws in 1930 for which he was taken in custody, yet again.
The second Satyagraha movement that accompanied these incidents was undertaken on the issue of Dominian Status and was of a greater magnitude and intensity. The Gandhi-Irwin pact of 1931 was a breakthrough in the history of the Indian non-cooperation movement and civil disobedience. It was as a result of this agreement that Congress’ participation in the ‘Round Table Conference’ became possible, where Gandhi represented Congress. As a result of continual suppression at the hands of the British and the violation of the Gandhi-Irwin pact, the civil disobedience movement resumed on January 2, 1932, which led to Gandhi’s arrest only two days later. The British Government had passed a number of ordinances to counter the movement, their so-called rationale being ‘the ordinances were essential if India were to be prevented from drifting into anarchy’. The government took severe actions against the Congress and confiscated its properties and the movement was dealt extremely. But as C.V.H. Rao aptly puts it: ‘the nation may have emerged out of it exhausted — it was like gold emerging brighter from the crucible of fire’.
Gandhi also undertook fasts as a form of protest and an expression of his disagreement with government policies. In the latter stage of his political career, his focus as Rao sees shifted from mass boycott to individual Satyagraha with regard to free speech. With respect to non-participation in war effort, his 1942 initiation of the ‘Quit India’ movement served as the clearest of signs against and confronting foreign dominion.
An account like this of a philosophy of non-violent civil disobedience qualifies as a sufficiently hard-hitting statement and is all the more relevant in a world of ever-increasing hostilities and militancy. Rao’s India’s Case for Freedom is another book written in the same context and comes as a logical development of Civil Disobedience Movements in India. First published in 1945, it emphasises that Indian emancipation is not only a necessity per se but it should come under the United Nations’ agenda to establish long-term peace in the post war world. Rao lashes against the policies of Winston Churchill, who apparently fought in the World War to ‘liberate’ European countries that had been ridden by dictators and yet turned a deaf ear to India’s ‘unequivocally expressed national aspirations’.
Rao also refers to the fact that Britain had not been adhering to the Atlantic Charter (especially the Charter’s third clause) with respect to India. The book discusses Britain’s ‘divide and rule’ approach and how it capitalised on communal differences among Indians, along with Rao’s criticism toward Muslim League’s concerns about Hindu hegemony. The book also advocates a government for India which can act for the benefit and in the interests of the Indian people rather than India depending on a foreign bureaucracy that perhaps went largely unchecked for its high handedness.
Rao is of the idea that America should be briefed upon and confided into with regard to the independence question, chiefly because of the alliance that exists between Britain and America and the influence that the latter seems to exercise on the former, and most importantly because ‘American doubts and interrogation about India are becoming more and more insistent’. As a Gandhi loyalist, Rao equates politics and morality and calls India’s struggle for independence morally just and ‘essential’ and therefore, politically legitimate.
— Qurat ul ain Siddiqui, The Dawn
Offers his concise analysis of the pre-Independent problems of India and discusses the value and significance of satyagraha.
— Kavita Soni Sharma, The Tribune
Civil Disobedience Movements in India & India’s Case for Freedom by C V H Rao records the history of the various satyagraha movements conducted under the guidance of Mahatma Gandhi and auspices of the Congress and also tries to “appreciate the results and fruits thereof”. Rao is under no illusion about the movements being run on the steam of high ideals. His analysis of India’s freedom movement in the context of international developments, such as the Atlantic Charter, Monroe doctrine and World War II is useful.
— The Telegraph