Maximum City - My opinions

He just captivated me with his words, dragged me into the details, humbled me with the heroics of the under privileged and teased me with the tale of the mislead. Suketu Mehta's brilliant work on 'Mumbai' truely kept me hooked on to the book for the entire length. A definite recommendation from my side, 'Maximum City' deserves accolades for the neutral view of the city.

I am a big fan of leading a peaceful life in a country like setting. I dream of having a quiet home far away from the hussle and bussle of the big cities. And i hate the fact that in India we do not preserve our rivers or even take enough pain to control growth in cities. We grow inorganically and reach a point where our infrastructure breaks. All our rivers are mere dumpyards and we fail to look beyond the confines of our homes.

The author comes across as a global citizen who can see the whole world without the burden of his context. He skilfully describes every character and event they were part of. I loved the non-partisan view on even his friends, for example on how he describes Vidhu Vinod Chopra as someone who is confused between the western movie styles and the Indian public's likes. There are places in the book where the author reflects in a philosophical manner of why people go through what they do. There is no right or wrong, there is no one way of living life and the one who most enjoys life is certainly the one who can open mindedly take in every opinion and change himself to accomodate what appeals to him.