Mumbai cats leap out into garden city of Bangalore

When a city becomes the protagonist in a story, it takes on a unique persona. Sadiqa Peerbhoy, well known advertising professional in the city, explores the Mumbai she once knew in her new book Madonna of Mumbai Cats and Other Stories, to be launched in Bangalore on Wednesday. The book captures vignettes of a city that was once her home. In this short story collection, fact and fiction intertwine.

“I spent my childhood and adolescence in Mumbai, and feel a great deal of nostalgia for the city,” says Peerbhoy “Mumbai has this quality of actively shaping those who live in it. In the 1960s, it was a city that embraced people from across the country. Within a few months of arriving there, you became a Mumbaikar. And that quality of belonging in the city came with bravado, a quality of cockiness.”

Peerbhoy concedes that times have changed, though. And the fact that the Mumbai of her memories is perhaps a different city altogether from the Mumbai of today is what impelled her to write her stories. “I speak through the voice of my characters. The story that lends its name to the title is about a Russian lady who comes to live in a lane in Mumbai and feeds stray cats. Her character is multi-faceted. The story was something of a bildungsroman, a growing-up tale for me. The whole story is narrated through the lens of a teenager,” the author says.

In evocative and controlled prose, Peerbhoy plumbs the depths of character and situation, throwing light on the dilemmas of the man-on-the-street.

Although set in Mumbai, there is a quality of universality to the stories, as they tell of ordinary, everyday events.  “I chose to write short stories because I have worked so long in advertising. I’ve always had to be restrained, writing short, concise copy,” she says.

This is not the first time that Peerbhoy has taken on the mantle of an author. She has earlier published a collection of short stories, Faces in the Crowd. A collection of her columns is also available, titled But Other Mothers Do.

Madonna of Mumbai Cats and Other Stories will be launched by playwright, actor and filmmaker Girish Karnad at the ITC Royal Gardenia.