Review: Six Days in Bombay

Six Days in Bombay by Alka Joshi
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Hooter: Irani chai: strong on taste, weak on consistency.

Set in 1931 Bombay, the novel gives us Sona—a young Anglo-Indian nurse whose biggest rebellion until now was probably serving chai without saucer. Enter Mira, a flamboyant painter, and suddenly Sona’s tidy world turns into six days of secrets, self-doubt, and side-glances. The city itself is the real star: colonial clubs clinking gin glasses while chawls echo with political whispers. You can smell the sea air near Apollo Bunder, hear the protests bubbling under the surface, and feel the awkwardness of being called “darkie” one moment and “halfsie” the next.

The writing is vivid, but also a little guilty of “narrator uncle syndrome”-lots of telling, less showing. Mira feels magnetic but strangely hollow, while Sona becomes so consumed with chasing Mira’s shadow that she forgets to cast her own. The European detour adds texture (and a whiff of Mussolini), but the plot sometimes meanders like a BEST bus on strike.

Still, for six days you do get swept into a Bombay that’s both glamorous and gritty, idealistic and insecure. A good one-time read, not quite the book you’ll be pressing into friends’ hands at Kitab Khana.

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