Crisis of Identity and Relationship in Ashok Banker’s Vertigo

Pages:221-223
Rakesh Bharti Yadav (S.K.P.G.College, Kanwali)

Ashok Banker was born on 7th February, 1964. He is a novelist and short story writer. He has worked as a print journalist, columnist, and script writer for TV series and documentaries and in advertising. Banker as a contemporary novelist is a significant name in post-colonial Indian literature. He is noted for his cross-cultural themes and his realistic portrayal of Indian urban issues. He has published in several genres ranging from fiction to mythological epics. Vertigo is his first novel, though fifth to be published. It contains autobiographical elements. It is about a man struggling to make a successful career and home life in Mumbai. Banker delves deep into the crises of relationship within the family and the society in the post- colonial Indian society. His portrayal of the fragmented relationship between the individual and the family and between the individual and the society and its effect on the psyche of the protagonist forms the core of the novel. Banker brings in contrast the traditional mindset with the modern value system. He exposes the motives and machinations underlying the web of human relationship. The purpose of my paper is to reveal the intricacies of human relationship in the life of the protagonist Jayesh Mehta who has a mixed parentage; his mother being a Catholic and his father being a Gujrati and the inner turmoil of his mother who had been divorced by his father only after an year of their marriage and has to bring up her son as a single parent.