King Charles II of England received Bom Bahia, often known as the Good Bay, as his dowry when he wed Princess Catherine de Braganza of Portugal in 1661. This was reclaimed ground that later developed into the renowned metropolis that people affectionately referred to as Bombay. This harbour city is so vibrant that it is currently overflowing with residents of many ethnicities and concrete structures that haphazardly snake the city limit. In their book Bombay, Meri Jaan, Jerry Pinto and Naresh Fernandes go into great detail about this city of contrasts and diverse cultures. This book is a collection of poems and prose works written by well-known figures in the literary world. such as Salman Rushdie, Dilip Chitre, V S Naipaul, Khushwant Singh, Saadat Hasan Manto and Pico Iyer. These contributors each focus on different aspects of the coastal city such as its high-rise apartments, its slums, the bhel puri on the beach, the gully cricket, the cops and the underworld, women in a ladies compartment in the local train, the monsoon floods, the Shiv Sena, Bombay?s several cinema halls and so on.The highlight of this read is that it contains not only mere text but also interesting cartoons and photographs that draw the reader?s attention. In addition, it also offers readers a song and a Bombay Duck recipe as a means of capturing the true spirit of Bombay or Mumbai as it is called today.An anthology that is as varied, wealthy and vibrant as the city itself, Bombay, Meri Jaan was published by Penguin books.