All those of you who have stayed in mumbai will agree with ny title....mumbai is indeed a city with a myriad of cities within. Suketu Mehta aspires to manifest this very attribute of this great city by painting a kaleidoscopic portrait of different lives in this city. Just like how a mother identifies herself with her children Mumbai has been illustrated by its people in this novel.......... Initial part of novel deals with the shock of our NRI author who returns to Mumbai after 21 years ; and is astounded by the changes and the prices n all. suketu is overwhelmed by the fact that system works inspite of its zillion flaws and sums up in this local phrase "" 101 out of 100 are dishonest , still my india is da best "" Suketu then goes on to do a very vivid description of mumbai riots.....meeting the rioters first hand....asking them simple but still spine chilling questions like "what do u think before killing a man in front of u??" and is told by rioters "what happens exactly when a man is burnt alive "......he makes u face the realities of riots. He meets gangsters , talks to their lords in dubai..(he talks to chota shakeel !!!!!) first time you’ll realize these exiled gangsters as mumbaiites too....how they pain to go back to their beloved city....we see how these gangsters praise their city to mafia’s of dubai n pakistan......a shooter boasts about new flyovers comin up... Suketu realizes these shooters of D company are philosophical people!!!! Questions like "what is good and wat’s bad??" which seem meanigless to us but haunt these people day and night then u read about "monalisa"......a bar girl...a rather a successful for that matter....her story is I think is like a whole movie in itself......its the most interesting part of the novel....... Suketu analyses the problems of an honest and hard work in the city......and takes a first hand look at how police works You’ll have your share of glamour too.... Author meets sena supremo Bal Thackerey....Amitabh Bacchan....Sanjay Dutt.....Hritik Roshan...Shahrukh Khan...Preity Zinta......Vidhu Vinod Chopra is in fact a good friend of the author. In one instance...preity zinta comes to know there r real shooters around her as security and author knows them.. she is fascinated to meet real gangsters. She asks Mehta, "Can you point out someone who’s killed?"..!!!!! I m sorry this has turned out to be a rather long review....but then its almost an 600 pages book the part when Mehta goes to slums and sees the life and dreams of these people ;and the part about the runaway poet who is a street dweeler shows the phenomenal brilliance of the author. Some parts of book like the part about jain community seem to drag a little but its amazing to see the excellence with which author has carved out this masterpiece on such a cohesive theme.. This....my friends is a must read .....and more so for mumbaiites as they will relate better with it