Mumbai milieu

Nitish S Rele catches up with Mumbai-born author Thrity Umrigar, on her newest release The Space Between Us

Nitish S Rele

A journalist for 17 years, Mumbai born and Cleveland (Ohio) based author Thrity Umrigar's second and recently released novel, The Space Between Us, uses the backdrop of Mumbai to sketch a portrait of a woman and her maid. "When I was growing up in India, I was always fascinated by the closeness shared between mistresses of households and the servants who worked for them," Umrigar explains. "It seemed like a very rich, emotionally complicated relationship - women who were linked by working side-by-side daily, often sharing the bonds of gender but whose lives were also divided by issues of class."

The novel, which has already gone into a second printing in India, is doing well in the USA and was the No. One pick this month for BookSense, the largest association of independent booksellers. Umrigar has also authored the novel Bombay Time and a memoir entitled First Darling of the Morning: Selected Memories of an Indian Childhood. Her next book, she divulges, "is set in suburban Ohio and it is the story of a middle-aged Indian woman."

Umrigar has written for the Washington Post, Cleveland Plain Dealer and other national newspapers, and regularly writes for The Boston Globe's book pages. Having lived in Mumbai until the age of 21, Umrigar's book is based on her observations of the customs in her own household. While the plot of the novel is completely a work of fiction, the main character of Bhima is based on a woman who used to work in her home when she was growing up. "I was very close to her and admired and respected her a great deal for her stoic heroism, for her courageous response to adversity and mostly, for her dignity," expresses Umrigar. "I wanted to capture these qualities in the character of the fictional Bhima."

Delving into some vivid childhood memories, Umrigar muses, "As a kid, I loved the monsoons. When the streets would get flooded, I loved how the city came together, with everybody pitching in, people helping strangers," she says. She enjoyed that same sense of camaraderie during cricket test matches, when strangers walked up to one another and asked the score. "And I still miss those amazing twilight Bombay skies, when the whole city was bathed in orange and golden light," she articulates. She recalls how she loved going to the seaside in the evenings, where it seemed like all of Mumbai had turned up there for some much-needed interaction with nature. In fact, she expresses, "I write about this in The Space Between Us - how the sea restores the spirits of Mumbaiites, how it feeds their souls."