Customer Reviews

Ravan & Eddie

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A Reasonably hilarious story about Ravan, a Maratha Hindu & Eddie, a Roman Catholic growing up to adolescence on different floors of the Central Works Department chawl no 17 in Bombay.

Having never before been inside a Chawl, inspite of seeing plenty from the outside, this book seemed the ideal vehicle to get transported inside a place I had never been before. Or at least the blurb said so.

The story starts off when Ravan is not yet born & Eddie is barely a year old. It then follows them through the twists & turns of their growing up, the pleasure, the pain, the horror, the angst, the guilt, the questions ... they are all there in the book.

Kiran Nagarkar confesses upfront, that he has a tendency to rat on his own earnestness with something farcial, bawdy or self-deprecatory. If you can handle that, you will love the book.

With the mill lands being sold off for Commercial gains, the only way we may know of Chawls & life in them will be through books like Ravan & Eddie.

Kiran breaks of in between the narrative to give the reader "a Digression on Afghan Snow", a "Meditation on Neighbours", the "History of Romantic Comedies in Hindi Films", & the "Shortest Survey ever of the Portugese Advanture in the Old World"

The "Meditation on Neighbours" is Absolutely Brilliant, even as a stand alone piece of writing. It elaborates on some elementary or critical differences between the Catholics & Hindus living in the chawls. The book is worth buying just to read this elaboration.

Looking forward to buying and reading Cuckold & Seven Sixes Are Forty Three. Then maybe I can try to get my hands on his plays & screenplays.

Nagarkar's RAVAN AND EDDIE is a wonderful work of art brilliantly presenting the Indian urban chawl-life. The locale is Mumbai (Bombay) and the chief characters are Ravan, a Hindu boy, and Eddie, a Catholic boy. The story pivots around the lives of both, being neighbours in the CWD chawl at Byculla, Mumbai.

The theme of this novel of mulitple narrators is the conflict of two diverse cultures being made to blend together. The little incidents in their lives are presented in a hilarious manner (though some episodes are far-fetching), but draws the reader's attention to the multi-cultural Indian civilization.

Nagarkar is impartial in presenting the negative aspects of both Hindu and Catholic religions. The novelist, mostly as a third person narrator, creates laughter when he presents the blind beliefs, rituals, and customs of both cultures which are deep-rooted in their respective religions. The theme could be broadly called the East-West encounter, yet the manner of presentation is brilliant and interestingly realistic. The book, which is included as a literary fiction, will naturally be read in a single sitting

Being an educator in a Mumbai college, I recommend this book to be read by all Indians as well as those who want to know more about the heterogeneity of Indian culture and life.