Bombay to Mumbai – mid-day.com

The word stowaway is used to refer to a person who hides on a ship or an airplane. It is also the title of Kersi Khambatta*s second novel about a Parsee-Irani boy living in Bombay (later Mumbai). Our curiosity is sufficiently piqued about the screenwriter*s name choice for his second novel. “I was around when Bombay exploded into Mumbai, this innocent toddler bursting into a jacked-up, supercharged, vice-ridden adult. Was that me or the city? Probably both. Perhaps Bombay had never really been innocent; it had just been lying in wait for a freer market, satellite television, better drugs and guns. Perhaps I – or more accurately, my protagonist – had never been innocent either. Either way, it was a story worth telling.”

The Stowaway is about coming of age, of the city and of a Parsee-Irani boy who resides in it, their destinies cosmically aligned. It spans a period marked by two seminal events – the riots of 1993 and the attacks of 2008.

Hemali Sodhi of A Suitable Agency that represents Khambatta feels that this book will appeal to Mumbai*s readers, “Fabulously fast-paced, acerbically witty, this sprawling saga of family and vengeance absolutely takes your breath away, and is a page-turner.” It is a cautionary tale of excess hubris and privilege; of parallel universes separated by sliding doors best left shut. Khambatta prefers to think of it as a soaring love story that tries its best to defy gravity, but should have sensibly packed some parachutes.