Books
City stories
Text and photos by Aparna Andhare
Bombay has been the subject of several novels
and short stories. Her history, position of power,
the lifestyles of the rich and fabulous, the
underworld, and a vibrant, diverse underbelly
has inspired writers, poets, photographers
and cinema. A slim collection of short stories,
No Presents Please: Mumbai Stories written
in Kannada by Jayant Kaikini is a stellar
addition to the repertoire of Bombay / Mumbai
books. Translated by Tejaswini Niranjana,
the book received critical acclaim, and an
inevitable list of nominations and prizes.
Jayant Kaikini was born in Gokarna, a coastal
town in western India well-known for its beaches
and temples. Like most people in Bombay, he was
a migrant who stayed for over two decades before
leaving for Bangalore. He has been a biochemist,
a writer, a poet, and worked in television, winning
accolades along the way. Kaikini is both an insider
and an outsider to these stories and the city. One
can imagine him unobtrusively observing
Bombay, gleaning the stories in this collection
from impassive faces on a crowded train, and
retell them with compassion and tenderness.
A dark hardback with a photo of a shirt
hanging from a window (by Nitesh Mohanty)
stands quietly, compelling a closer look. Told in
16 stories and a conversation written over three
decades, the book is nostalgic, critical, yet
optimistic. These are stories of ordinary people—
chawl dwellers, migrant labourers, fortune
seekers, lovers and dreamers. Family, friendship,
aspirations and reflections are at the heart,
and Kaikini approaches his character with
familiarity and empathy. The writing (which we
approach through a fine translation) has an
easy rhythm and visual quality to it. Bombay is
a constant presence, a protagonist too, who
makes many of these cities possible. Local trains,
a work-ethic, a different system of hierarchy,
people packed together, pushing themselves
against harsh circumstances. Much of this
struggle is only possible in specific parts of
the city — recognisable easily, and central to
the lives and times of the protagonists.
An initial skim will have you believe the book
is about love stories — finding love, losing it,
fighting for it, and celebrating it. From the first
story, City Without Mirrors the reader plunges
into a complex whirlwind of emotions. A simple
man, Satyajit fights himself and knowing better,
when he receives an unexpected proposal,
and has a conflicted moment of empathy and
despair when an old father offers him the proof
of his middle-aged daughter’s virginity. How
does a person, who has accepted a life of solitude
respond to a sudden possibility of a companion?
What are his moral qualms? Pages will fly but
the lump in your throat will stay. In contrast
to the mature Satyajit, is Popat from the last
story, No Presents Please. Popat touches you with
his sincere hope and attempts to make one
worthy of a partner, trying to plan his wedding
the right way, even as the protagonist, Popat,
deals with his own limitations and humble
background. In Crescent Moon, Pandurang Khot
has had his leave application for Ganapati
rejected, and taking matters in his own hands,
he steals a double-decker bus, and drives to his
village, to partake celebrations and play a part
in the annual village theatrical production. While
you can’t help but like the affable Pandurang,
things get murky when he is infatuated with
the lascivious star of a visiting theatre troop.
Family and the lack of it is another theme
of the novel. Whether it is finding photos to
create dubious parentage to convince the
bride’s family, or becoming a daredevil
stuntman in Toofan Mail, or the conflicted
emotions when considering a remedial home
for a delinquent son (A Spare Pair of Legs),
stories map out the maze of human emotions,
the grey areas of love, imposition of shame, the
shades within a person’s character, and coping
with the consequence of love, loss and societal
pressures, and prejudice.
Women are not marginalised in the stories,
they have a voice, agency, and make a choice,A collection of short stories centred on the city of
Mumbai as the protagonist evocatively explores
and documents neighbourhood identities, familial
ties, and encounters with strangers