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ISSN 2278-9529
Galaxy: International Multidisciplinary Research Journal
www.galaxyimrj.com
The Criterion: An International Journal in English Vol. 9, Issue-I, February 2018 ISSN: 0976-8165
www.the-criterion.com
No Presents Please: Mumbai Stories by Jayant Kaikini and Tejaswini
Niranjana
Reviewed by:
Ashish Negi
Assistant Professor (Guest),
Sri Aurobindo College,
University of Delhi
Kaikini, Jayant and Niranjana, Tejaswini. (November 2017). No Presents Please: Mumbai
Stories. Harper Perennial. ISBN-13: 978-9352645879. Pages: 240, Price: Rs. 350
No Presents Please: Mumbai Stories is a collection of sixteen short stories by renowned
Kannada writer Jayant Kaikini about life in Mumbai city translated from the writer’s mother
tongue into English by Central Sahitya Akademi Prize winner Tejaswini Niranjana, penned over
a span of two decades beginning in 1986. The narrative of the stories is in third person
omniscient and so provides the readers with the characters’ individual understanding and
perception of Mumbai and its role in their lives. The book also has a ‘P.S.’ section at the end
which includes an article on ‘Translating Mumbai’s Cultural Vernacular’ by the translator and a
discussion on Kaikini’s stories by four of his readers, presenting us multiple views on his
writing.
The first story in the book is titled “City Without Mirrors” and is about an unmarried man in his
forties named Satyajit who has never been in a relationship but finds himself connected with the
various thousand faces he sees everyday in the city. He believes he does not need any
relationship because he is “married to this city”. The protagonist finds himself in a strange
position when he is presented a marriage proposal with a thirty nine year-old woman named
Shalini by her father Sanjeev Sen despite never having seen the bride. However, Kaikini
describes these ageing unmarried singles’ existence as coming close to one another through the
city as nobody is a stranger here; all part of the same universe. And, as the title reads this city is
without mirrors because one can see its reflection even in a stranger here.
What is so special about Kaikini’s stories is the innocence of his characters who while
meditating on the art of silence in isolation find some part of them ‒ a connection ‒ in a total
stranger in the city. The young strangers Manjari Sawant and Nandkishore “Nandu” Jagtap in
“Interval” decide to elope together but upon meeting for the deed realise that the other person’s
purpose was not to be a lover but to liberate the other from the sullen life that was holding them
back for so long and to present “the infinite possibilities afforded by their freedom”. Strangers
are saviours in Mumbai city, where even the dead acquire a new life when their photo frame is
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The Criterion: An International Journal in English Vol. 9, Issue-I, February 2018 ISSN: 0976-8165
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used as a prop on a drama company’s stage as seen in the story “Unframed”. Kaikini’s idea is
how even an inanimate object can be brought to life in Mumbai.
Kaikini (and his characters) often romanticise the city as they forget themselves while meditating
in its lap forming the strangest of bonds in the meantime. For example, in “Opera House”, a
young keeper of a declining opera house finds a lost thermos flask and is restless until he returns
it to the presumably needful owner or the intended recipient who must be unwell. Meera Kothari
in “Inside the Inner Room” forms a most unique relationship with Parul ‒ the woman who is
more than just friends with her dispassionate and unfaithful husband Antariksh. Alienated
initially, the wife comes closer with the other woman over the latter’s medical operation and
together they oust the self-centered man ‒ who is nothing but a ‘ghost’ by the end of the story ‒
from the apartment both metaphorically and literally. Kaikini does not limit bonds formed in the
city to just those between humans of the opposite sex; for him the essence of the city lies in the
closeness it can make one feel with anyone or anything one lays its eyes on.
How much the Hindi cinema influences the life of Mumbaikars is an ever present feature of
Kaikini’s stories. For example, in “Gateway” the unemployed married man Sudhanshu wishes
his life were a movie so that he could catch a break ‒ an intermission. He does not want either
the surprise or the magic that is part of a movie screen but the timeout that allows one to relax
which is why he indulges in a conversation with a roadside keychain-seller while contemplating
about the city and his wife. In “A Spare Pair of Legs,” a group of women in a chawl ask Popat
the tea boy to dance to the tune of A.R. Rahman’s ‘Hamma, hamma’ for them. And, in “Toofan
Mail” the protagonist Toofan’s livelihood depends on his job as a stunt double for famous movie
stars such as Shah Rukh Khan. It isn’t just the movies that connects these characters but also the
uncertain nature of their jobs. They aren’t economically content yet they behold the city in their
eyes. And, the elaborate way in which Kaikini writes his characters’ thoughts (and Tejaswini
Niranjana translates) elicits the reader to be in tune with that particular character’s consciousness
about his/her life in Mumbai.
The aforementioned struggling characters are as reflective as the dying self-made successful
businessman Santoshan who is in the city for a medical check-up in “Water”. The only thing he
wants in life now is six more months so that he can attend his granddaughter’s wedding. And,
while struggling in the relentless Mumbai rain he realises the terrible error he committed when
he decided to become one of the first to sell packaged drinking water in the country ‒ a thing that
should be free to everyone. No matter how you look at this city every sight of it is an eye-opener.
It shall provide you with all your answers if you reflect with an open mind.
In these stories Mumbai indulges its people in an insightful train of thought with Kaikini not
forgetting to mention the symbolic Victoria Terminus (now Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus) ‒ the
headquarters of the Central Railways ‒ on multiple occasions. Kaikini’s characters are never at a
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The Criterion: An International Journal in English Vol. 9, Issue-I, February 2018 ISSN: 0976-8165
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standstill. Always moving, travelling, both literally and metaphorically. But, whether they are
moving in or out of the city Mumbai stays with them. These stories weave a collective narrative
of people becoming one with their city. And, because of that reason one doesn’t have to be a
Mumbaikar to enjoy Kaikini’s book. No matter where you go you can never lose connection with
an enchanting city like Kaikini’s Mumbai ‒ a place that shapes you and is a part of you even in
isolation.
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