Mission Mumbai
Mission Mumbai
The tall woman scratched the two-day stubble on her square jaw, clapped rudely in Mrs. Lal’s face, and walked away. Most of the other passengers took out various denominations of rupees and pushed them into the women’s callused hands.
I was seething with anger and, if I was honest, fear, too. “Super aggressive beggars! Why do you encourage them?” I said.
“Shah,” said Rohit, rolling his eyes. “They’re eunuchs called hijdas here.”
I scrubbed the spot where the eunuch had touched me. “Go on,” I said.
“No one argues with hijdas,” Rohit explained. Easier to give them what they want.”
“Why?”
“Because they’ll abuse and curse you. Most people in India are superstitious. To be cursed by a hijda is bad luck. And if they bless you … you have a run of good luck.”
I thought of Mom then, and the laughing Buddha keychain she took with her everywhere—a gift from her college roomie from Nepal. She would have everyone hunting for it on the rare occasions she misplaced it. In some ways, people were pretty similar the world over. Sometimes it was best to go with the flow.
Mission Mumbai is a middle grade novel about two best friends on vacation in Mumbai. The story is told from the perspective of Dylan, a rich white kid from New York City who is accompanying his best friend Rohit’s family on a trip. Rohit moved to the United States three years earlier and is not happy to be back visiting India. Mission Mumbai was first published in 2016 and has been recently be re-released with a different cover.
Dylan is eager to explore India and take pictures of what he sees. He welcomes this trip as a break from his dysfunctional family. Dylan is enthusiastic about being in India and loves the food and the “culture”, but his understanding of that culture is very basic. Rohit’s mother, Mrs. Lal, is always having to accommodate him or help him out of trouble.
While the two boys are best friends in New York, they do not get along for the majority of the story. Apart from the conflict between the friends, the other conflict in the story comes from Rohit’s aunt who helps with the family finances in New York and disapproves of Rohit’s behavior. She wants Rohit’s parents to leave him in India where she believes she can raise him to be more respectful.
There is something that does not quite sit well about this travelogue-style story told from the perspective of a spoiled rich American protagonist. There are also some questionable areas, such as the above depiction of the hidjas (the only LGBTQ+ representation in the book), and the use of the term “cripple”. Furthermore, there are also some negative passages relating to body size. For instance, when Dylan first sees one of Rohit’s aunties, he describes her as “A monster in a purple saree” who “has been devoured by Jabba the Hutt’s sister.” (p. 74). Dylan narrates, “I almost hurled my plate, Frisbee style, to stop her from coming any closer.” (p. 74)
While Mission Mumbai may have some issues in its narration, it is a well-paced and engaging story.
Beth Wilcox Chng is a teacher-librarian in Prince George, BC. She is a graduate of the Master of Arts in Children’s Literature program at the University of British Columbia.