When I saaat too wriit a peem Th woords wooulldn’t cme When the didd the wooulldn’t rhhym When the rhhymeed the maad n seensee Lik aaa red rose ii aaa blaak annd whit fiilmmm Lik aaa rinbow ii aaa scccorchin sk Lik msc frm soomewh ii th ded off niiigt Gorges mirraclees impssble too expln When I saaat too wriit a peem I kew Ll I haad too doo waas dscrb ou—From Roohann Shahha to Punaita Shahha A love poem in Engglishhh©, a new language that has numerology as its guiding principle, a mascot clown who yearns to explore a city of animate beings, a purveyor–director of porn who bamboozles his hesitant leading lady with highfalutin oratory, a building watchman who counts the seconds to death—Altaf Tyrewala has an uncanny ability to write the streets and mindscapes of Mumbai, the city he first captured in prose as nobody else had in 'No God in Sight', and more recently in verse, in 'Ministry of Hurt Sentiments'. His words are sharp with irony and each story is slashed through with deftly satirical insights into the ways of men and the worlds they inhabit. Praise for the Altaf Tyrewala: 'It is exciting to see a serious writer work in a new form—Tyrewala powers the reader through the phenomenon of Mumbai rage, erupting with breathtaking speed and vigour at everything from traffic to beggars to the over-sweetness of “cutting” chai' — Mint 'It is fluent, fluid, image-rich. The writer wanders the streets of Mumbai with every sense sharpened, observing, watching, absorbing and then drawing pictures that readers will recognize almost instantly' — The Hindu 'The clever use of catchphrases and the overall insistence of its rhythm are reminiscent of the best slam poets. Tyrewala is that rare Indian writer who’s pitch-perfect while dealing in street speech patterns and equally at ease with a broader, cross-cultural idiom' — The Sunday Guardian 'A gripping work that presents Mumbai like the paradox it is. Tyrewala examines the sores on our collective conscience with unbearable clarity' — Hindustan Times