This is a novel set in the 1950s in Mazagaon, Mumbai. The setting is a chawl and it's a story of two boys from lower middle class families and their adventures. It's a excellent look into this chawl life, the community divide, the family dynamics and life post independence.

But it also has a few drawbacks. The language is not up to the mark and we immediately realize that English is not the author's first language. The other thing is the author in the name of making this novel humorous tries attempts to write like Gabriel Garcia Marquez , and fails miserably. A 2.5/5 stars from me. ( )

The chawl life parts were fun to read. A little dated though. Then some of it was kinda surreal, some of it far-fetched. Shouldn't be telling you too much now, mustn't spoil it for you or anything. The general knowledge asides into Mazgaon, the Portuguese and related history - that was informative, but the first time I have seen non-fiction worked into a work of fiction like that and some of it clearly, excuse the cliche, was pandering to the west.

A word about the writing, not that my writing is much to speak of, but then again, I ain't coming out with a book any time soon. It was almost as if someone sat down with a dictionary, made a list of esoteric words, and worked them in. Like there was a compulsion to use 'em, a sort of "make sentences out of the following". Or at least they didn't seem to fit and the writing came across as a little forced.

And almost every review or blurb I've read about this book hitherto said that this was a funny tale or used the old reliable "Hilarious!". I didn't laugh once, if truth be told. But it wasn't a total waste of time. It's an OK enough read. If nothing else, it brought back memories of them old Sai Paranjape chawl and neighborhood vignettes on film (Katha) and TV - back in the day when DoorDarshan ruled supreme ("Ados Pados" and then some). There was also this brilliant Marathi TV serial "Chawl Navaachi Vachaal Vasti" that did a take on Girgaum - and then it also reminded me of Pu La Deshpande's "Batatyachi Chaal".

Sometimes a book works for you purely because of the choice of subject. So, nice choice of subject really even though it didn't touch upon as many aspects of chawl life as it potentially could have. To be fair, it wasn't that kind of a treatise. The book revolves more around its central characters with the chawl as supporting cast, as it were. ( )

Who knew that "Putting on the white shirt and khaki half-pats (never called shorts) was a ritual as complex as a samurai initiation." An excerpt: http://www.purao.net/wiki/Ravan_and-Eddie_excerpt ( )