Childhood friends Sowmyan and Ruban's paths have split away. When they meet again, Sowmyan is thrown into a wild turn of events, which feels like a repetition of his family history. Pettai happens around chennai's chindadripettai. Revolving around two generations of a family living in modern day chindadripettai, it starts with the historical foundation of the place as a town. A logical formation of livelihood in the land, and individual lives not bound by any logic but of fiction run parallel in this racy novel. People, their language, beliefs, values, and the change with time are also recorded with selected details without hindering the narrative. Chennai's marginal lives are rarely portrayed in fiction with such intensity. Thamizprabha's debut novel gains from his engaging writing style and the wealth of characters and landscape.