Dichotomy of Individualism and Collectivism in Maximum City: Bombay Lost and Found

Abstract

Suketu Mehta is one of the most prolific writers of non-fiction writings emigrated to Newyork from Mumbai along with his family at the age of 14. In the year 1998 he returns to Mumbai and recaptures the maximity of it through various interviews of the local inhabitants and the emigrants from the country. Mehta encompasses these interviews in his narrative non-fictional book, Maximum City: Bombay Lost and Found. This insider outsider perspective of Mumbai resembles with Dante’s Inferno. This research paper basically aims at Mehta’s portrayal of the megacity Mumbai along with the dichotomy of individualism and collectivism. It analyses how the city reciprocates with its inhabitants. It also takes in to account that how this metropolis, despite all its scarcity, is a center of attraction for people across the country to upgrade their living and working status. The way the city caters all its residents, bring forth the juxtaposition of individualism and collectivism.