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![As a Mumbaikar, my relationship with Chennai had always been a noisy one.
Mostly built on IPL nights, on the rivalry of Mumbai Indians and Chennai Super Kings — blue vs yellow, Rohit vs Dhoni, endless banter, endless pride.
That was Chennai to me for the longest time
But *Minor Disturbances at Grand Life Apartments added another relationship
This book did not introduce me to Chennai through postcards or tourist landmarks. It introduced me through power cuts, balcony conversations, filter coffee, overprotective mothers, apartment gossip, loneliness hidden behind routine, and the strange intimacy of neighbours who slowly become family. And somehow, while reading it, Chennai stopped feeling unfamiliar.
What stayed with me most was how deeply human everyone felt.
Kamala waiting for her daughter’s visit carried the ache of every Indian parent whose child has emotionally drifted somewhere oceans away. Reva’s exhaustion from office politics, marriage expectations, and constantly having to justify her choices felt painfully real. Even Jason, a foreigner in the city, carried a loneliness that felt oddly familiar. That feeling of trying to belong somewhere while carrying heartbreak quietly inside you.
And then there is Grand Life Apartments itself.
Not just a building, but the kind of place Indian cities are slowly losing. A place where people still notice each other. Where lives accidentally overlap. Where gardens, cats, food, and evening conversations become part of survival.
The beauty of this book is that nothing “huge” happens.
Life simply unfolds. Softly. Patiently. Like real life does.
As someone from Mumbai, I kept realising how similar our cities truly are beneath the language and geography. The same middle class anxieties. The same emotional distance within families. The same fear of losing homes to glass towers and builders. The same longing to hold on to spaces that carry memory.
This book felt less like reading a story and more like living inside someone’s apartment for a while.
Thank you, Hema Sukumar, for writing Chennai with so much warmth and honesty❤️
Sweet and light read❤️
@hachette_india
[ books, bookstore, booklovers, bibliophiles] by @hemasukumarwrites](https://scontent-phl2-1.cdninstagram.com/v/t51.82787-15/686048821_17957928012102048_2226453992120394608_n.heic?stp=dst-jpg_e35_s640x640_tt6&_nc_cat=111&ccb=7-5&_nc_sid=18de74&efg=eyJlZmdfdGFnIjoiQ0FST1VTRUxfSVRFTS5iZXN0X2ltYWdlX3VybGdlbi5DMyJ9&_nc_ohc=-3myBtA3HtgQ7kNvwFDOLtX&_nc_oc=AdqZrpEGVmUQZnsu9ngxz71hAiEzu58qDT8Mck539LUhentylC8qcey8gGXAJzA4ZJkYWlnM7J5CqxTRjrBaltRW&_nc_zt=23&_nc_ht=scontent-phl2-1.cdninstagram.com&_nc_gid=eIL6jYAY3LIwysBo1mnBCQ&_nc_ss=70689&oh=00_AQSsI4BDdp-NVoFH-T-qVnht6GIokP17r--dimuTxWpJiw&oe=6AF00944)
