69 thoughts on “Maximum Tardiness”

1. As for me, I’m lovingly getting ready to re-read (for the fourth time!) A Suitable Boy,

   just four times, ANNA – that’s not very ‘suitable girl’ of you. i kid, of course. i actually started re-reading ASB (too many re-reads to count) after i decided that MC was not my thing at the moment – within the first 50 or so pages, his writing really put me off, and i was too lazy to force myself to continue. which is too bad,since i was looking to learn more about the city – but hopefully this thread will do that for me. in the meantime, i am eagerly awaiting the ASB installment of the book club.

2. After weeks of procrastination and a few days of grim determination

   Sadly the story of my life, the strike outs don’t happen often enough unfortunately. Also, B&N puts this book in the History section right next to something like India After Gandhi. Is this book really ‘history’? (no, am not reading the posts, spoilers and all that till I get to reading the book whenever it happens)

3. I read the book when it came out. There’s a section where the authors spends a significant amount of time with a high class dancer/red-light variety woman.

   When the author’s real life mother-in-law read this section, she contacted her daughter to see what she thought. The daughter had not read that section of the book. In the ensuing drama, it turned out that Mehta slept with the dancer.

   As for the book, I appreciated the explanations of the city dealing with rent control, mill area, etc. It’s a high drama/interesting book. No one I know that lives or grew up in Bombay likes the book. Without going to the city and knowing people there, Mehta’s book gives the impression that Escape From New York gives of NYC. Still, I found it informative when put in context.

4. this book is as relevant as fiction.

   Vikram Chandra’s fictions do a brilliant job of capturing real Bombay.

5. this book is as relevant as fiction.

   Explain?

6. I’m with Neale. Explain.

   Also, rumor-monger, I love you. But everyone knows that already. 😉

7. Neale and Tamasha, just to clarify, this thread is about MC, not one person’s take on it. I wanted to give people who have read MC a chance to discuss it, no matter how late I am in doing it.

   I’m grateful to Karthik for applying jumper cables to this near-dead discussion; if he wants to respond to you, that’s wonderful, but if he doesn’t, I hope that we don’t get bogged down with that. I want to read about what others think, not dissect one opinion.

8. This review reflects some similar thoughts I had on reading “maximum city”. For instance, there is this section where he goes back to his old high school and is invited to address an “annual day” event (I remember Salil Ankola, the Mumbai fast bowler was another alummnus who was invited). He does’nt have a single nice thing to say about his school, every sentence drips with condescension and ridicule. The whole “bar dance” section was integral to describing the underbelly of Mumbai but he seems to be way too obsessed with it, spending hundreds of pages on it.

   His section on the movie industry with “movie-log” described as people and not demi-gods was a high point of the book (Sanjay Dutt comes across as a real dim-wit).

9. The whole “bar dance” section was integral to describing the underbelly of Mumbai but he seems to be way too obsessed with it

   Well, difficult to say–he does describe that scene as attracting lots of wealthy men from the city, as well as from the Gulf, so maybe it’s something that shouldn’t be ignored….I’m sure Mehta’s take is somewhat idiosyncratic, but he’s entitled to that, I think–not like he’s making stuff up! I’m going to Mumbai for the first time this Oct.–glad I’ve read his book–hope I can still find some of those Parsi corner cafes he says are disappearing.

10. Ok. I was waiting for this post. In fact I started reading the book late and was afraid that I wouldn’t be able to catch up in time for the discussion. I think we were supposed to discuss the first section only.

    I enjoyed reading it but my thoughts are that it seemed exagerated. Is mumbai really that bad? Is the air pollution that bad? Are that many people really giving up their lives to come there and start over? It seems like he could be making stuff up or exagerating to make things more interesting. Which I guess is why Uberdesi says it is “fiction.”

    The one section in which he talks about the slum lords who run the television cables for people he says that the the slum lord sleeps with his clients wives and stuff but he never mentions any of the bad things that could be happening. He doesn’t mention if their wives become pregnant or if he gets STD’s or what happens when the husbands find out.

    I also liked the part with the girls at “IC college” watching porn the nights that they go drinking and stuff because that is the kind of thing that you don’t expect in India. Infact many parents send their kids to study in India thinking that they will become more like themselves and less western/corrupted.

11. I enjoyed most of Max City. I don’t know why he left out a sizeable part of population. Legit business people, professionals and much of the upper middle class — just the sort who would read his book (and later blog about it :-). I guess they don’t provide colourful narrative like bar girls and bhailog. But the parts of Bombay he did cover are quite authentic. My formative years were spent around Naigaum / Lalbag / Parel / Dagdi Chawl area, so I am quite familiar w/ the beat. I am what he derisively refers to as “Ghati”.

    I will give him benefit of doubt and hope rumours are, well, rumours. But the bar dancer part sucks the life out of the book. And everyone from Kiran Nagarkar* to aam junta have rightly slammed him for it.

    Many Bombay bloggers have panned the book. Years ago, Maharashtra’s most popular writer P.L. Deshpande wrote in his Mumbai essay, “If you complain about Mumbai to a typical Mumbaikar, he won’t take offence. In fact he will go on to add a few of his own complaints to the list.” I wonder when we became such a thin-skinned lot. Mehta’s South Bombay snobbery is grating at times, but his criticisms are valid. It’s a book worth reading – flaws and all.

    *An old Bombay hand. A rare writer who writes well in Marathi and English. A writer of “relevant” fiction.

12. More Masala from Sonia Faleiro as she interviews Vinod Chopra:

    Q: Has your relationship with Suketu Mehta soured after Maximum City? A: Mehta is crazy. His marriage is over, he’s on the street. He writes, I’m told, (I haven’t read the book) that he came to my house and there were my three wives. What is this nonsense? Renu (Saluja) was my ex wife, Shabnam is in Canada. I have had one wife for nine years. I haven’t spoken about this to the press, but talking about it to you makes me think I should sue him. It suits him to project this image of an Indian director, because it fits into the dangerous mind of Americans, who like to feel superior to everyone else. The book should be banned. Q: Mehta mentions your desire to immigrate to Canada. A: I don’t want to talk about him. I let him into my house, took him everywhere. But for me that book wouldn’t have been written. I never knew he was writing about me and my family, just about Hindi movies. If I didn’t want to forget about it, I’d sue his pants off. Aamir Khan was reading the book, but when he reached my chapter he threw it away. Q: You slap people when you’re angry? A: I’ve slapped a couple of critics, which is why I never get good reviews. But I hven’t slapped anyone for a long time. I have young children so I try very hard. But I get angry with people like Mehta. If he came here now, I would slap him.

    Suketu responds at Columbia Journalism Review:

    Q: Vinod Chopra, with whom you collaborated on his film Mission Kashmir, and who is another memorable figure in the book, has just launched the most vitriolic attack on you in the Web site Tehelka . A: I became very good friends with Vinod Chopra. He came and stayed at my house and I stayed at his house, and as with everybody else, he was under no illusion about what I was doing. I was sitting with a laptop, writing about him. And I remember when I told him I had this huge mass of material and I was going to have to edit it, he said,”Is there a little bit about me in the book?” I said, “There’s a lot about you in the book!”, and he said, “Don’t edit that.” He’s a man who, when he walks down the street, there’s a large truck following him carrying his ego. He’s very happy about that. “We are not modest” he said to me. When the book came out, something very strange happened. He called for the book to be banned and he threatened to slap me. His objection is I said that he has three wives, allegedly. I say no such thing, it’s very clear. Q: He’s been married three times. A: He’s married three times, two ex-wives and one wife. Q: And he’s very friendly with the two ex-wives. A: Exactly, not that he’s sleeping with them, but he’s an example of how you can have two ex-wives and a current wife and maintain friendly relations with the three of them, which to me is a major feat. It’s because he hasn’t read the book. Bollywood people are used to being written about either as a hatchet job or hagiography. And my book is neither. It’s nuanced. There’s fairly sympathetic understanding of people who are flawed, and with Vinod I make it clear that in his family I found a species of home. I got his wife a book contract to do a Bollywood book over here, I got her an agent, I helped him in a script for a Hollywood movie that he wanted to do. We became close friends, but here I… Q: It’s an extraordinarily vicious attack. A: That’s Vinod. I’ve never responded to him. My chapter on him is really the unfolding of a friendship. And that fact that he has called for the book to be banned! Not even Bal Thackeray has called for that.

    I’m loving it;) Vinod Chopra’s wife is Anupama Chopra, who is the sister of Vikram Chandra. This is better than Bollywood; oh, this IS Bollywood!

13. When the author’s real life mother-in-law read this section, she contacted her daughter to see what she thought. The daughter had not read that section of the book. In the ensuing drama, it turned out that Mehta slept with the dancer

    Oooh SNAPPED by his mother-in-law!

    Shame:P he be bowing at her feet pretty low now, methinks…

14. I read the book over the course of several long distance flights and in retrospect that seems appropriate. the chapters read very much like new yorker pieces and I assume that audience is the one he had in mind.

    from my perspective it took the standard bombay obsessions (bollywood, the underworld, etc) and gave them the “new yorker” treatment — mostly well written pieces about some outre (well outre enough to its audience anyway) subjects/characters, wrily comic and poignant in its best moments and hinting at deeper layers of meaning/understanding that are, however, never fully explored in the piece. in a magazine article, this format makes some sense: it gives readers an “in” to a perhaps unfamiliar world but in terms and aesthetics that are entirely familiar. the lack of depth isn’t necessarily a drawback, its part of the deal.

    in a book though,the overall feel is one of terrible disjointedness and a superficiality that seems strange when you consider the dude upped and moved and lived in bombay for a year (more? perhaps less?) to write the book. i’m not asking for copiously footnoted text, but surely a little more analysis would have been helpful. without it, the book seems like a reiteration of the usual bombay cliches but in a somewhat new idiom. yes,

    the best bits i thought were some of the autobiographical ones about his ancestors and their business travails. the bar girl/underworld-cop/bollywood pieces seemed pretty trite. much better to write fiction i’d say (and i think of sacred games as a fictional — and much richer — version of MC) since he was clearly playing fast and loose with how much he’s telling the reader (the affair with the bar-girl for instance).

    to be fair though, some bits are genuinely interesting particularly the people he hangs out with. i guess an indian journo could do the same, but the piece would be very different. MC reads like the work of a definitive outsider (although he was one an insider and so there’s the added resonance of that) and I guess that tone wouldn’t come through.

    overall, I guess the book provides a very american-centric view about one of the most glam/thrilling/dangerous part of a culture that americans by and large know not very much about and are perhaps becoming more interested in.

    it definitely builds up the bombay myth for an international audience and along with shantaram’s success (and the upcoming movie) and sacred games which all cover roughly the same territory, the mumbai myth seems to becoming more global and MC is a big part of that.

15. I’m loving it;) Vinod Chopra’s wife is Anupama Chopra, who is the sister of Vikram Chandra. This is better than Bollywood; oh, this IS Bollywood!

    Yeah, well the paperback version of MC has on the blurb at the back something to the effect of…

    ‘Mehta writes about a colourful cast of characters including a dancer named Mona Lisa etc. etc., a police detective who outshines any fictional one…’

    Thought that was pretty arrognant when I read that!

    Especially with all the prizes he’s won, didn’t think he would need to slam down other writers just to sell his book which was pretty hyped anyway.

    I still agree that it’s worth the read, while some might think it’s too tailored to an American audience I guess we’d kinda need to remember that the guy lives in America so rightly he’s allowed some double South Bombay+NYC arrogance.

16. from:http://soniafaleiro.blogspot.com/2006/01/greater-loneliness-is-when-you-create.html

    I have two books in mind. Among the Chatteratti, and Maximum City (in which Chandra, his sisters Tanuja and Anupama, and brother-in-law Vidhu Vinod Chopra are mentioned). Of the latter, allegedly, people Suketu Mehta mentions in the book weren’t aware they would feature.

    Well, it depends on your contract with the person. If it’s a public figure, and you make a pastiche of the person, that’s one thing. But if you have a direct, intimate connection and you pretend that you are a friend of your subject’s, as it were, and without telling them use their lives as material I think that’s shady. It’s usually questionable, and likely to make people very angry. If you’re sitting at somebody’s house and eating their food and saying you’re their best friend, and a year later they find some version of themselves on a public page; they have a right to get pissed off.

    I’m completely aware of this. If I enter the room and tell the people there ‘I’m a writer writing about this mileu’, I don’t expect them to treat me as a friend. But if I tell them ‘I’m your friend’ and I behave like that, and I end up spending time with them, that is a betrayal. No two ways about that. I think some people, certain people I can think of, argue for a higher purpose. ‘Oh, I have to do this because I’m saving the country.’ Some bullshit like that. That’s just self-serving crap.

    1. I’m assuming since his book released, you two haven’t spoken.

    No.

17. I read Maximum City after reading Shantaram. Both paint vivid colours of Mumbai with the latter being quasi-fictitious. Which do I prefer? Shantaram. His descriptions of the child/human trade, slum life, South-Mumbai life is rivetting. He writes one evocative chapter about how day labourers used to trudge up the stairs of his hotel, to physically fill the overhead/roof watertank so that the ‘foreigner’/him could take a shower. And later when he takes his Indian slum friends to a five-star hotel, they are agog with wonder with all that water just lying there… Maximum City was like a grainy documentary without soul.

18. A few reminders:

    Please use this thread as an opportunity to discuss Maximum City and not “UberDesi’s review” of it.

    Using paragraphs is appreciated, if you have much to say.

    Finally, UberDesi is written by NRIs, not American-born South Asians/ABDs.

19. I read Maximum City around the time “Freakonomics” came out. In a bizzaro way I was interested in both because of the “study” of crack dealers in US housing projects by a Desi. I thought MC would give me a peep into the underworld of Mumbai. Because everyone from, Bratislava to Borneo,and all points in between , has some take on he [American] “hood“* and in a petty way, I guess I was looking for other dirty laundry. I also had a “nobler” interest/curiosity about poverty; is it the same everywhere?

    I don’t have an answer to that, but I do think modernity/ capitalism (of which I’m a fan) does homogenize issues across cultures/races/regions. Favorite word from the book- “powertoni“. Remaining puzzle… why does Mehta, often say ‘after all, this is not New Delhi’ to underscore a point about Mumbai? I didn’t understand if he was making the point that Mumbai is more sophisticated, or more ‘authentic’, whatever that might mean.

    (*Do all “Americans” visiting Ghent/Geneva etc. get asked about the crime in the states? 🙁

20. I liked his descriptions of vada pavs. Made me go hunt for them while I was in Bombay.

21. As for me, I’m lovingly getting ready to re-read (for the fourth time!) A Suitable Boy, since that’s the tome we are doing next.

    Four times? Wow.

22. I am what he derisively refers to as “Ghati”.

    This drives me crazy. Granted that the Marathi people did not create Bombay/Mumbai or make it into the city it is today. But for crying out loud, it’s in Maharashtra, it’s on Marathi soil, and people (including the South Bombay types) damn well should respect that. I have cousins from Mumbai, younger than me (which means I can be pretty frank and bossy with them), and when one of them referred to locals as Ghatis, I went off on him. He was just very amused though, I don’t think I changed his mind.

23. I read MC a while back, I have lived a fair share of my life in Bombay and to be honest some parts of the book resonate with me. I am no literary expert but like to consider myself well versed in the ways of Bombay and I feel Mr. Mehta comes severely short in capturing the essence of the city. The parts about the dance bars are unnecessary and the chapters in the book feel disjointed. OT, Rob, if you want any recommendation for your maiden trip to Bombay, please feel free to ask, I am sure many people here will be happy to help. For Parsi/Irani restaurants, there is one right next to Imperial in Girgaon, and my favorite was Olympia on Colaba Causeway in South Bombay.

24. The only part of Maximum City that was worth reading was the last chapter. I read the book after reading Shantaram and really felt like Mehta took too much of a voyeuristic view of the city. The difference between MC and Shantaram was that MC really made you feel like you were looking from the outside in- therefore he only highlighted the things that would be considered “sexy” for the international audience. And as someone who lived there for 2 years, Shantaram truly spoke to what was inside, the soul of the city.

    It was such a bad read, I feel terrible knowing there are scores of people out there with such erroneous impressions of my beloved city!

    A better book on Bombay is Ravan and Eddie (about life in the Bombay chawls– it is HILARIOUS)!

25. Four times? Wow.

    I’ve seen The Sound of Music 91 times and had a PB+J for lunch every day of school, from first grade through 12th. When I love something, I LOVE IT. 😀

26. I’ve seen The Sound of Music 91

    if you really loved it, you would take a vacation in the european foothills, get a butch haircut, and dance around with 3 little white kids.

27. I’ve seen The Sound of Music 91 times and had a PB+J for lunch every day of school, from first grade through 12th. When I love something, I LOVE IT. 😀

    Wow, again. Wow.

    PB+J for twelve years? That reminds of me of David Lynch eating lunch at the same Bob’s Big Boy for like 8 years in row.

    “So long, farewell” has been in my thoughts this summer. Need to download it from iTunes, soon and remix it.

    It’s good to have strong convictions, but tuna melt sandwich would have been good too. 🙂

    Can’t believe I’m hungry for lunch already.

28. It’s good to have strong convictions, but tuna melt sandwich would have been good too. 🙂

    Just the rank odor of tuna makes me THRILLED to be a strict, life-long vegetarian.

    Back on topic, people! 🙂

29. This drives me crazy. Granted that the Marathi people did not create Bombay/Mumbai or make it into the city it is today. But for crying out loud, it’s in Maharashtra, it’s on Marathi soil, and people (including the South Bombay types) damn well should respect that. I have cousins from Mumbai, younger than me (which means I can be pretty frank and bossy with them), and when one of them referred to locals as Ghatis, I went off on him. He was just very amused though, I don’t think I changed his mind.

    Amitabh,

    I think there is more to it than simply South Bombay types being derisive to the “natives”. That Bombay is part of the state of Maharashtra and that it is seen as a Marathi city is a recent construct, and one that is pushed by the Shiv Sena property. After independence, Bombay State covered what is now Gujarat and what is now Maharashtra, and when there was agitation to create two states, there was great controversy about whether Bombay would go to Maharashtra, Gujarat or become a city state unto itself like Delhi. It took a very strong Marathi movement to make Bombay part of Maharashtra and since then, Gujaratis, Sindhis, South Indians and other non-Marathi Mumbaikars have faced the brunt of some ugly regionalism. Many people feel that Bombay is a pan-Indian city that happened by political circumstance to be in Maharashtra and use the term “ghati” in response to Marathi chauvinism that they see.

    Ram Guha’s wonderful new history of India discusses the formation of Maharashtra in some detail.

30. Back on topic, people! 🙂

    If you’re desi, isn’t food always an acceptable topic of conversation?

31. I actually never knew vada pav was THE Bombay street food till I read Maximum City. I always thought it was Pav Bhaaji.

32. I liked his descriptions of vada pavs. Made me go hunt for them while I was in Bombay.

    His description of food did make me hungry.

    And if you have questions about my review, let’s take it to my home. 🙂

    Neale, Tamasha: Your answer is here.

33. Sorry to be OT again, Janki Vada Pav is as much Bombay street food as Pav Bhaji, as Bhajia Pav, Bhurji Pav, Keema Pav and Dabeli. The beauty of Bombay is variety. Hopefully you got to try some nice vada pav.

34. I have to say, as far as Indian cities go, I was always a Delhi lover, and in fact I still love Delhi, but Mumbai has really grown on me too…very dynamic, different sort of a place. Lots of faults, but lots of amazing traits too. The funny thing, most people fall firmly into a ‘Delhi’ camp or a ‘Bombay’ camp, and people who love one tend to hate the other (well, mostly Bombay people seem to hate Delhi). I’m one of the few who likes and enjoys both cities.

35. Many people feel that Bombay is a pan-Indian city that happened by political circumstance to be in Maharashtra and use the term “ghati” in response to Marathi chauvinism that they see.

    Political circumstance. Could it be the actions of Morarji Desai? That urine drinking dotard (thank you Mr. Rushdie) who ordered massacre of 105 peaceful proMaharashtra demonstrators?

    The term “ghati“ was in use long before Bombay became part of Maharashtra. Typically used by the nonMaharashtrian overlords to address labour class riffraff from Maharashtra.

    It’s absurd for any state or linguistic group to claim ownership of Bombay. Not that it matters. Bombay always got screwed by all its masters. Look up tax revenues generated by Bombay and crumbs it got in return.

36. That urine drinking dotard

    Which,apropos of nothing, brings to mind a juvenile chutkuli of my youth.Q:What was Morarji Desai’s favorite drink?A:Pissky

    The funny thing, most people fall firmly into a ‘Delhi’ camp or a ‘Bombay’ camp

    Oh I absolutely hated Delhi the first year that I lived there, after spending all my life in Maharashtra.Then it grew a bit on me.i appreciate the different spirit that exists in both cities.When and if I move back to India,I will live in either Bombay or Delhi but my beautiful Pune 🙂

37. After independence, Bombay State covered what is now Gujarat and what is now Maharashtra, and when there was agitation to create two states, there was great controversy about whether Bombay would go to Maharashtra, Gujarat or become a city state unto itself like Delhi.

    The political boundaries immediately post-1947 didn’t make much sense in most cases, and the linguistic reorganisation later was absolutely the right way to go, in my view. I mean, there was a Hyderabad state which included parts of current-day Karnataka, Maharashtra, Andhra, and Orissa(?). How unwieldy. The fact that Bombay was part of British-created ‘Bombay State’ is not very meaningful I think. Making it into a city-state like Hong Kong would have made some sense though I agree.

38. I am sure that MC is like any book that doesn’t resonate with the people who actually live the lives that Mehta writes about. However, for me, it showed me a bombay that I had no idea existed. It was nice to see how regular goons, politicians and even seemingly glamorous beer bar dancers all had one thing in common, insecurity. I got scared for the people who lived there and have used some of the arguments put forth by Mehta to discuss the place with my in laws. They were born there and plan to retire there in a month.

    I thought that the monalisa part dragged on as well and we could have done without her description about ‘discharging’ etc. I found myself fascinated with Vidhu Vinod Chopra and disgusted with the hypocritical likes of Anu Malik.

    I found the last section particularly interesting since I am married to an ex-Jain. They are a very different lot, for sure.

39. Just the rank odor of tuna makes me THRILLED to be a strict, life-long vegetarian. Back on topic, people! 🙂

    I don’t need to talk about food anymore, ate lunch.

    Happy camper. 🙂

    Maybe one of these days I’ll read the book, however the stacks of unread books near my bed is growing rapidly.

40. Shodan @ No 11 and 35 ..spoken like a true “bhau”!..Looks like we grew up pretty close to each other..JJ Road ..Umerkhadi.. For an indepth understanding of Mumbai and its changes one should read in the following order: Rohinton Mistry : Tales from Firozsha Baug , A Fine Balance. Salman Rushdie: Midnights Children

41. To add to #33.. the list is incomplete without Zunka-Bhakar, Misal-Pav, Chis-sendwich (find out for yourself), Samosa-pav, .plus the Udipi vada-sambhar, idli-sambhar.in short…just visit Khau-galli behind cross-maidan..to satisfy your cravings!

42. Zunka-Bhakar, Misal-Pav, Chis-sendwich

    Do they still sell Zuka Bhakar at the ridiculously low price opposite VT/CST?I know the Sena govt started the Zunka bhakar stalls….

43. Absolutely Chanakya, there is a mini version of the Khau Galli in Ghatkopar as well, how can I forget Misal-Pav (Channa, Farsan and Pav), it is one of my favorites. Even though I am not Maharashtrian, I take great offence at the usage of Ghati, I remember that is one of the things that put me off MC.

44. Also add to mumbai street food: Bhelp puri,pani puri,SBDP ( Sev batata dahi puri) and the excellent omelet pav – wash it all down with “usacha ras”( sugarcane juice) or kala khatta gola….. okay I’m hungry now

45. Sion Koliwada tandoori, five garden kala katta….

46. Britannia and Company Restaurant – Irani. The berries in Berry Pulao come from Iran. Ling’s Pavilion – Chinese. Used to be good. Geting nasty reviews lately. Bade Miya – Kababs Anand Ashram – Malwani Cuisine. Don’t miss the delightfully cranky Fish Nazi. Closed in monsoons. Hopefully stil in business. Kayani – Cakes, biscuits etc. R.I.P. Bastani Mani’s – Best sambar in town. Guru Kripa: King Circle: Punjabi Samosas / Chaat

47. Haven’t read the book for the reasons mentioned by other posters.

    I lived in bombay twice in my life, the first time i was “worse” than a ghati. I was a ghati wanna be and lived in Thane and Dombivli. I waded my 5 year old self through sewage during the monsoons. I hate the smell of rain coats till this day because it reminds me of swimming in sewage (there is absolutely no drainage in those parts of the city).

    The 2nd time was in 2003. I was a rich expat living in mumbai for 9 months and I was hanging with the people I used to admire (south bombay posh and Bandra filmi crowd). I felt nothing but utter disdain for their pathetic lives and i treated them lower than the bottom feeders of society. Yet, they kept coming back for more, wanting to win my adulation. I had a driver that used to work for a few producers and I got into the driver subculture. Very interesting. When you work for a producer, the driver’s job is the most dangerous cos they shepherd around a lot of black money and hide it in the slums. “Jab bhai ka haath producer ke sir pay se uth jaata hai, apun driver log ko eech pehle tapkate hain. Bahut dangerous hai apun ka line.” My favorite word. Tapkao. Such a nice sound to it.

    Sanjay dutt is a tool by the way. As is Vinod Chopra. I loled at Suketu’s line about the truck driving behind Vinod carrying his ego.

    I also went to a few Dance bars or beer bars as they call them. Interesting experience but heart breaking. Such beautiful young girls without that glint in their eyes. No one that young should be so hopeless. The beer bars are frequented by all kinds of people. Rich businessmen, shady jewellers, salaried everymen, IT professionals and ofcourse Bhailog. Not a good place to pick a fight but people mind their own business and you will have no trouble. I think the place I went to was Topaz. Any rick/cab driver will be able to take you there.

    If you want to get a better sense of the Bombay beer bar scene, watch Chandni Bar. For an outsiders look at Bombay, watch Bombay Boys. And if you want to know what happens if you are at the wrong place at the wrong time in Mumbai, watch “Is raat ki subah nahin”

    Rob, whatever you do please don’t go to Leopold’s.

    Went back to my old neighborhood… I was so happy to see that I got out of there.

48. To add to Shodan’s list,

    Brittania and Kayani are great, there are many nice Chinese places now, Zenji in Bandra, East in Tardeo, Shiro in Bombay Dyeing Mill Compound and Lemongrass in Bandra for Indian style Thai Food are great. Does anyone remember the name of the bakery in worli City? which is great for kadak pav. Shodan do you remember the gomantak place in Dadar?

49. Zenzi Shiro East Rooftop Bar Intercontinental (Dome) For other recommendation check this site

50. Since the most famous eat-outs have already been posted ..here a few from my ol’hood

    Cafe-Almas ..Mughlai food..mutton samosas, biryani. (Opp JJ Hospital)..(Watch “Salim langde pe math ro”..the hotel was in the movie credits) Zam-Zam Sweets..Near Minara Masjid ..Mohammed Ali Rd ..for Nankhatai, farsan, diwali sweets (kaju katli, peda) Mohammed Ali Rd Post 9.00pm during Ramzan..Indian street-food at its best ..Roomali roti..boti kabab.katakat..Bheja fry, biryani,..falooda (yes Bheja fry ..also savored by Anthony Bourdain..No reservations ..on the Travel channel). Hotel Balwas..Grant road ..for cheap and decent Mughlai food. Shetty’s @ Nana-chowk for Bhelpuri..chaat… K-Rustoms @ Churchgate..for home-made ice-creams Kobe- @ Chowpatty -Marine Drive for sizzlers and ofcourse the canteen food @ Wilson and Xaviers..