Book Review : Pittho's World by Murtaza Razvi

Pittho’s world by Murtaza Razvi which was published posthumously has the story teller Sheiku narrating the story of his life to his lover Rani. As the blurb says, the story takes place in several countries like Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Bangladesh and India and spans over two centuries. Typically, every chapter begins with a short conversation between Sheiku and Rani, often involving sarcasm, followed by Sheiku taking on the role of the storyteller and ends with another conversation between the lovers with Rani sometimes praising the characters and sometimes criticizing them.

The first story is of Sheiku’s ancestors set in 1852 which in my opinion doesn’t make a good start with the innumerable characters and the non familiar places and names. Sheiku then moves on to the story of his grandparents, parents and other members of his family.

Pittho who is just another character is introduced to the readers in the middle of the novel. She is a distant aunt of Sheiku who claims to know magic and gives excuses of being misguided by Chawk, a goblin, for turning up at their home late at night. Pittho is said to have a foul mouth and a few chapters of the novel dealing with Pittho are filled with a few expletives, repeated again and again, which makes a bad impression. The other part of the novel too has expletives used in the conversations, which should have been avoided.

The narration of the death of Sheiks parents is another episode that needs mention. it appears a bit humorous with Sheiku’s aunt standing firm in her belief that the man would pass away before evening and the author describing how they cried in rhythm and setting the atmosphere for others to start crying.

As the story proceeds, it talks about other people not so closely related to Sheiku. Each of the stories can be read individually in the later half and there doesn’t seem to be anything in common between them except for being a part of Sheiku’s life. During the last few chapters, Rani is absent and Sheiku is seen talking with himself hoping for her early arrival. The narration of his life story however continues.

Overall, the book makes a good read and succeeds in making the readers live the life of Sheiku.



This book has been reviewed as a part of GetPublished program by IndiBlogger.