Author: Sadiqa Peerbhoy
No. of Pages:298
Genre: Fiction
Publisher: Readomania
Price: Rs. 295/-
Published in: 2017
How did I get it?From the author.
THE BLURB SAYS:
A discordant family in a hate-driven city…will they find the ties that bind?
A tough matriarch; an effete father who escapes reality; a rebellious son who marries a Muslim girl; a depressed spinster daughter; a resident ghost and the discovery of some strange family secrets…
The Deshmukhs of Barrot House are barely surviving in a rambling house in the middle of Bombay when violence knocks on the door.
The post-Babri Masjid Bombay of 1992 is a city wallowing in hate. The Deshmukhs find themselves in the vortex of the raging storm.
Will the famed Spirit of Bombay eventually rediscover the healing magic of communal tolerance? Will the family rediscover the love that will help them survive? Sadiqa Peerbhoy spins a multilayered family saga—a metaphor for the city she grew up in.
A tough matriarch; an effete father who escapes reality; a rebellious son who marries a Muslim girl; a depressed spinster daughter; a resident ghost and the discovery of some strange family secrets…
The Deshmukhs of Barrot House are barely surviving in a rambling house in the middle of Bombay when violence knocks on the door.
The post-Babri Masjid Bombay of 1992 is a city wallowing in hate. The Deshmukhs find themselves in the vortex of the raging storm.
Will the famed Spirit of Bombay eventually rediscover the healing magic of communal tolerance? Will the family rediscover the love that will help them survive? Sadiqa Peerbhoy spins a multilayered family saga—a metaphor for the city she grew up in.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Sadiqa Peerbhoy was born in Hyderabad, grew up in Mumbai and lives in Bangalore. She has been an advertising professional all her working life and is the creative force behind many Indian and international brands.She started writing a humorous topical column in the local papers to keep her sanity in a deadline-ridden career and wrote it for thirty years, collecting a huge fan following in Bangalore. She has also scripted serials for television, scripts for BBC, short stories for the weekend papers, has four published books and many creativity.
She ran a British college, Wigan & Leigh, in Bangalore and has taught advertising, branding building, life skills and lateral thinking in corporates and colleges. Sadiqa is married to advertising legend Bunty Peerbhoy, is the mother of two and remains an ardent student of Hindustani music.
MY THOUGHTS:
The plot and storyline of "House of Discord" has all the ingredients of a Bollywood blockbuster. A myriad of characters in a single family, a resident ghost, inter-faith romance, a quirky servant, a wild riot, political goons, skeletons in the cupboard and ancestral property.
Loki runs the household of Barrot House. Despite dwindling funds, she tries to maintain the grandeur of the Desmukh household. Her husband, Vikram, is more comfortable in his room among his books and radio rather than manage the technicalities of a mundane family life. Vikram's sister, Pammi is a spinster, still reeling under spurned love. Loki shares a bittersweet relationship with her first-born, Rajan. Her other children, Sarita, Lily, Ricky and Vijoo, more or less fall in line. The resident ghost of Nimma Aunty adds another dimension of flavour to this story. Nimma was Vikram's sister, who died young. Things start rolling when Salma, Rajan's love, enters Barrot house.
The book is well-written and is a well-paced entertainer. It has integrated regular human emotions in a most interesting way in this well-conceptualized plot. The characters are well cut-out and weaved in beautifully. The riots across the country and Bombay post the Babri Masjid demolition in 1992 is taken as a backdrop.
In short, it is a good entertaining read.
Loki runs the household of Barrot House. Despite dwindling funds, she tries to maintain the grandeur of the Desmukh household. Her husband, Vikram, is more comfortable in his room among his books and radio rather than manage the technicalities of a mundane family life. Vikram's sister, Pammi is a spinster, still reeling under spurned love. Loki shares a bittersweet relationship with her first-born, Rajan. Her other children, Sarita, Lily, Ricky and Vijoo, more or less fall in line. The resident ghost of Nimma Aunty adds another dimension of flavour to this story. Nimma was Vikram's sister, who died young. Things start rolling when Salma, Rajan's love, enters Barrot house.
The book is well-written and is a well-paced entertainer. It has integrated regular human emotions in a most interesting way in this well-conceptualized plot. The characters are well cut-out and weaved in beautifully. The riots across the country and Bombay post the Babri Masjid demolition in 1992 is taken as a backdrop.
In short, it is a good entertaining read.
I give "House of Discord" 
