India, Dec. 15 -- About 20 years ago, my teacher in Delhi University, Christel Devadawson, said something which has remained soldered in my brain ever since. Although the precise context now escapes me, her sentence is clear as day: "Stereotypes have their hook in truth," she said, "but the problem with stereotypes is that they market themselves as the only truth."

About one and a half years ago, I moved from Delhi to Mumbai. When you move cities, you don't simply move into a new physical location, you move into a new narrative of collective life. You land from one persuasive story of what it means to inhabit a city into another. This story too, like most stories, is laced with stereotypes.

About half a year into my move, something happ...