Books City Stories

A collection of short stories centred on the city of Mumbai as the protagonist evocatively explores and documents neighbourhood identities, familial ties, and encounters with strangers.

- Aparna Andhare

Bombay has been the subject of several novels and short stories. Her history, position of power, the lifestyles of the rich and fabulous, the underworld, and a vibrant, diverse underbelly has inspired writers, poets, photographers, and cinema. A slim collection of short stories, No Presents Please: Mumbai Stories written in Kannada by Jayant Kaikini is a stellar addition to the repertoire of Bombay / Mumbai books. Translated by Tejaswini Niranjana, the book received critical acclaim and an inevitable list of nominations and prizes.

Jayant Kaikini was born in Gokarna, a coastal town in western India well-known for its beaches and temples. Like most people in Bombay, he was a migrant who stayed for over two decades before leaving for Bangalore. He has been a biochemist, a writer, a poet, and worked in television, winning accolades along the way. Kaikini is both an insider and an outsider to these stories and the city. One can imagine him unobtrusively observing Bombay, gleaning the stories in this collection from impassive faces on a crowded train, and retell them with compassion and tenderness.