Mumbai: A Million Islands

The story of a city in the throes of relentless transformation.

Mumbai is in the throes of change, rapid and turbo-charged. It is not just transforming the city, it is doing so at a bewildering pace. New towers are coming up in place of old buildings and slums. The skyline looks nothing like it was a year ago.

This is creating shifts—economic, social, spatial and sociological. If an old building comes down, and in its place emerge tall luxury towers, where do old residents go? What happens to the slum dwellers whose tiny rooms now transform into posh buildings which they cannot afford? And what does it do to not just people but also old, established communities and therefore the city?

In this lecture inspired by the book and titled, Mumbai A Million Islands, the speaker Sidharth Bhatia will attempt to chronicle this displacement not just in a theoretical manner but on the ground. The story of this transformation is told by the residents themselves. It is a deep dive into the city’s history as well as the fast-changing city of today and tomorrow.

ABOUT THE SPEAKER AND THE BOOK

Sidharth Bhatia is founder-editor of The Wire and the author of numerous books on modern popular culture. In a multi-national journalistic career spanning over four decades, Sidharth has written extensively on society and current affairs as well as on Mumbai and its 20th century history. He runs a weekly podcast, The Wire Talks. He has written books like — Cinema Modern: The Navketan Story (2011), Amar Akbar Anthony: Masala, Madness, Manmohan Desai (2013) and India Psychedelic: The Story of a Rocking Generation (2014). You can read his articles at this link.

His most recent publication is Mumbai: A Million Islands (2025), a contemporary biography of the city. This book was published by Harper Collins India and is available for sale online and at your nearest bookshop. Here is the book blurb:

Since the East India Company merged seven islands into Bombay (now Mumbai), change has been constant-but now it is used as a weapon for displacement, disguised as development. Slums are erased overnight to make way for luxury towers priced in tens of crores. The working class is pushed to the margins-literally-and into distant housing projects with no infrastructure, transport or sanitation. Entire communities are uprooted while a new Mumbai is built for the privileged few, behind closed gates, inside glass walls.

Sidharth Bhatia's Mumbai: A Million Islands is a piercing look at a city in the throes of relentless transformation. What is vanishing is not just space, but memory, history and the very fabric of a living city. Mumbai's famed spirit of survival is being tested like never before. Where the original seven islands had symbolized a synergy, today they're multiplying as fractures-social, spatial and economic-splitting the city into a million islands, each more isolated than the other.

WHAT TO EXPECT

🏗️ 🏢 60 minute lecture about Mumbai and the story of its relentless transformation as a city

🎤 30 minutes of interactive Q&A with the speaker

👋 30 minute mixer with the speaker and other participants

🍺 One complimentary alcoholic beverage or non alcoholic beverage is included with your ticket

Pint of View Mumbai is inspired by the Lectures on Tap and Pint of Science communities, and we're taking this format across 10+ major cities in India and counting! It’s where big ideas meet bar tables.

EVENT DETAILS

Title: Mumbai A Million Islands

Speaker: Sidharth Bhatia

Day: Sunday

Date: February 22nd 2026

Time: 5 pm to 7 pm (Gates open at 4:30 pm)

Venue: Woodside Inn Bandra (How to get here?)

Disclaimer: Ticket holders must be of legal drinking age (21 and above).

At Pint of View Mumbai, curious minds gather over drinks to explore cutting-edge ideas and to unravel the threads of human culture. It’s the perfect way to spend your weekend - stimulating your mind, meeting people who think like you (or challenge how you think), and learning something you’ll definitely talk about all week.

See you at the lecture!

Warmly,

Diya and Abhishek

Curators, Pint of View Mumbai

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