Archive · 13 Sep 2026
A Room in Bombay Chronicles Love, Family, and Constrained Freedom
This book is about Manil Suri’s family living in Bombay many years ago.
His parents share one small room with other families.
They also share bathrooms and a kitchen.
Bombay gives them freedom from old family problems, but the small room makes life difficult.
Manil’s father dreams of working in films but faces disappointment.
His mother wants a different life but cannot easily leave.
Manil grows up as the person who connects his parents.
The memoir shows how love can continue through hardship, aging, and sadness.
Manil Suri’s memoir follows his parents and their life in Bombay after Partition.
The family lives in a single room at Razia Mansion, shared with other families and communal facilities.
The book portrays Bombay as both a place of freedom and a city that traps residents through housing constraints.
It explores marriage, financial hardship, creative ambition, alcohol, and a mother’s struggle for independence.
The memoir concludes with an affecting account of aging, guilt, love, and the bond between mother and son.
- Who
- Author and mathematician Manil Suri, his parents Prem and Raj Suri, and the families living at Razia Mansion.
- What
- A memoir about family life, marriage, cramped housing, and growing up in Bombay.
- When
- The book covers India’s early post-independence years, including the 1960s and 1970s.
- Where
- Bombay, particularly a small room in Razia Mansion near Kemps Corner in South Bombay.
- Why
- Suri examines how the city’s promise of freedom, the family’s dreams, and their constrained living conditions shaped their lives.
- Book
- A Room in Bombay
- Author
- Manil Suri
- Publisher
- HarperCollins
- Length
- 341 pages
- Price
- Rs 699
- Central setting
- Razia Mansion, near Kemps Corner, South Bombay
- Historical period
- India’s early post-independence decades, especially the 1960s and 1970s