Mumbai: A Million Islands – Book Review

Mumbai : A Million Islands book cover

It’s been a long while since I posted here. A few weeks ago, my mom gifted me this book because she came across an article about it in the newspaper, and I finished it in no time. Mumbai is home to many—to all the “floating and gloating” ones.

Some take pride in the city, some romanticize the struggle, but do we really ask ourselves how the commuter from the suburbs feels about their everyday travel through the local train? Or how a woman feels walking home late at night through an area or a skywalk that isn’t well-lit?

Photo by Hardik Joshi on Unsplash

The author of Mumbai: A Million Islands, @Sidharth Bhatia tries to reach those people and presents the honest, raw details we often subtly slide under the rug.

Mumbai: A Million Islands – A Short Review

Prejudice, judgment, and stereotypes are constant themes in Mumbai. Moving through its streets takes you through pockets of society woven together by specific humans—their culture, their privilege, their exclusion, and their helplessness in the face of survival.

The book discusses Mumbai’s design holistically, centering the perspectives of people from all walks of life. It covers a vast spectrum: from those living in small, cramped apartments dreaming of an escape, to those in traditional homes curated with bespoke interiors in pastel-colored Art Deco buildings preserved since independence.

Photo by Satyajeet Mazumdar on Unsplash

By the end of the author’s journey through the metropolis, the city feels like software undergoing constant "updates" that never stop, while the users are left pleading to just make things work.

The poor continue to be pushed and hushed into the peripheries without a second thought as developers race to reach the sky with luxury skyscrapers. Meanwhile, the middle class and the economically weaker sections of the society are offered "dystopian dominoes"—high-rises with hardly any recreational space.

Ultimately, the book reminds us that Mumbai isn’t just a map of reclaimed land; it’s a map of ignored lives.

The discarded feel the wrath of unlivable conditions, while the rich attend spirituality classes on their sparkling balconies.

Photo by Mayur Pokle on Unsplash