Murzban F. Shroff

Breathless in Bombay is an entertaining and occasionally challenging look at the daily lives of various segments of the population of a thriving, rapidly changing metropolis. A theme of collision between traditional and contemporary values runs through most of the stories. Shroff does an admirable job of depicting the personal views of residents as they watch their ways of life vanish in the name of progress. This struggle to adapt to a world fundamentally changed lends much of the drama to show more the individual stories. Whether it is the man hand washing clothes competing against the shiny washing machine or the residents of a decrepit flat fighting a bureaucracy in league with powerful developers, the stories put a human face on the remarkable transformation that is modern India. show less

Author Murzban F. Shroff attempts to capture the dichotomy of Bombay, both the beauty and the ugliness, and he succeeds. Fourteen short stories offer a glimpse into the cultures and lives of every day people in Bombay, from the rich to the working class to the poor.

Often my biggest complaint about short stories is reaching the end and wondering, "That's it?" That was not the case with Murzban F. Shroff's collection of stories. Each story stood on solid ground, the characters well developed show more in their complexities and lifestyles and the stories quickly and effectively established. There was not one story that I did not like, each a stand out in its own way. The fourteen stories that made up the collection were varied, some dark and sad while others more hopeful. Each of them was about the struggles of survival in a city where people flocked to for a better life and fought to survive in at the darkest of times.

Among my favorites was the story of Chacha Sawari and his horse Badshah in The Queen Guards Her Own. Chacha was a man who took pride in his work and loved his horse. He did not have much in the later years of his life, and yet he made the best of it, always looking out for Badshah. Even amidst the poverty and prejudice of the wealthy, Chacha remained hopeful. Then there was the story, The Great Divide, about an elderly woman and her husband who had taken in a servant. A recent rash of murders of elderly by their servants set Mrs. Mullafiroze on edge and she feared for her own life and that of her husband. A Different Behl and This House of Mine demonstrated the depth of good friendships while Jamal Hoddi's Revenge showed a man with nothing to lose in his darkest hour. There was a story of love lost in Traffic, and love found in Breathless in Bombay, the final story of the book.

Murzban did not hesitate to paint a colorful picture of Bombay throughout his stories, including the warts of the disparity between the poor and the wealthy, prejudice, the clash of tradition and progress, as well as the corruption and greed. And yet, woven within the stories was also hope, the love of family and the power of friendship and community. Breathless in Bombay took me right onto the streets of Bombay and into the lives of the various characters. show less

This is a beautiful, lyrical, ugly, harsh, sensuous, raw, heartrending book. I thoroughly enjoyed it.
As someone who knows little about Indian society and culture in general, and even less about Bombay in particular, I feel like I have been given a glimpse of a wholly unfamiliar world. Yes, the emotions and human interactions are a part of the human condition, but their context (so far from my own) makes them strange, opens them up to fresh investigation. The end of every story left me deep show more in thought, having to clear my head before reading the next one.
Shroff's writing appears tantalizingly transparent, but it becomes increasingly clear that he is indeed playing with language(s). There are moments when the characters switch from language to language and comments on and in English, Hindi, Gujarati, etc that remind us of the polyglot world of his birthplace, of the linguistic possibilities and the opportunities for linguistic inventiveness inherent in that sort of milieu. His judicious use of non-English words, words that are not defined (and whose meaning is not always clear from their contexts, at least not immediately) adds to the whirlwind sense of being a newcomer in the maelstrom that his Bombay appears to be, enhancing (rather than detracting from) the success of this collection. show less

Avid readers of fiction have their favorite Indian authors. The sub-continent has provided English readers with some of the best fiction of the last 30 years: Rushdie, Mistry, Desai, Seth to name a few. These authors have opened our eyes to a fascinating culture and landscape, seemingly another world. We will soon be adding Murzban F. Shroff to the list of exemplary fiction writers and his first collection of short stories, Breathless in Bombay, will prove that his inclusion is show more deserved.

Murzban provide characters, backgrounds and story lines in14 deftly expressed stories. One story, titled The Queen Guards Her Own, contains as many vivid characters as if it was written by Dickens: Chacha the carriage driver, Simran the young prostitute, Amir Jwaab the beggar. This House of Mine, tells the story of a houseful of tenants who unite to save their homes from demolition, each tenant a completely portrayed individual. In Maalishwaala, the Hindi term for masseuse, we learn the complex story, past and present, of a young man from a rural village trying to earn money to support his wife back home. Each story delivers, none disappoints.

The most fascinating character of course is Bombay itself, the city that is the home to these characters and millions of others. Dense neighborhoods that were rural 30 years ago are now being leveled for high-rises. Many thousands live and work in slums with corporate headquarters as the backdrop of their labors. The new Indian and the India of centuries of tradition rub shoulders continuously every day. The tension and the contrast between the ancient and the modern, rural and urban, Muslim and Hindu, affluence and poverty are all here. Murzban F. Shroff is a skillful and accomplished writer who has won recognition for his short stories. I believe that this collection heralds the wider arrival of his unique voice and ample talent. He is deserving of taking his place among his worthy contemporaries. show less