Journalists of the debut book Saumya Roy ‘Tales Mountain: Love and loss in the municipality of Castaway goods’ was released in August 2021.
In this book, Roy recorded the life of a waste picker that was often ignored in the TPA Deonar landfill, which is the world in itself.
The TPA Deonar Mumbai has been around for almost 122 years and it accommodates millions of tons of waste spread across 314 hectares of land.
Surprisingly, some of these rubbish dumps as high as 18 floors! But so little is known about it or the people who live there.
In his book ‘Tales Mountain’, Roy explores the lives of people living in this dumping land, which has made a livelihood from recycling, reselling or re-re-waste.
In this book, Roy tells the story of a teenager picker Farzana Shaikh, who lives in TPA Deonar, and how for years he found toys, clothing, food, friendship, and love being thrown away – all in the mountains of this garbage.
While this is the story of maximum city waste pickers, through their lives that Roy highlights the impact of urbanization, excessive consumption, pollution and waste (eg) management in the poorest of the poor in our society.
Roy wrote this non-fiction piece carefully and empathy.
It is not only the story of Deonar’s history and social and legal problems but also about the lives of people who live there who play an invisible but important role in our lives.
While this book focuses on Mumbai waste mountains and raging pickers living there, it deals with topics that globally relevant in our day.
So much so that regardless of released in India, the US and the UK this book will also be translated and released in China.
This strong book will make readers reflect on their lives and how a person can affect the lives of others.