Vertigo on Mouthshut.com
Feb 17th, 2008 by Ashok
Reader Sumit pointed me to these reviews of my novel Vertigo on a site called Mouthshut.com. Some may be a bit old but they’re pretty cool, and clearly come from genuine readers who connect with what’s often considered to be my best book.–AKB
“Life, Love, Duties = Confusion??? Yes Indeed….”
Posted by Chintu25 on Mouthshut.com
Vertigo is the sensation of spinning or swaying while the body is stationary with respect to the earth or surroundings. (Source Wikipedia)
Do we all suffer from Vertigo and we don’t know also.
Is it a side effect of life?
For Jay, our protagonist it is.
22 something, Jay Mehta lives in Bombay. Let’s talk about the main people in his life
Mom is an alcoholic. Christian married to a gujarati business man and later abandoned by him. Jay has never been able to understand the reason for their marriage & divorce.
I wouldn’t be wrong if I say that she is mentally retarded, forces milk on his son, beats him if he takes his own money from her cupboard and in better times cooks a meal for him which strewn with cockroaches (she doesn’t know that)……
Will Jay stay with her or move out for a better life? What is life at home for him?
She is just beginning to turn as he shuts the door, her hands limping sadly by her side, nightdress splattered with milk, surrounded by an explosion of glass and (oh God, she’s barefoot) white blood. Something has died here, it seems. Something dies here everyday, it seems. Perhaps someday, someone will die here too. He shuts the door on her and is gone….
Tuli, love of his life, is she? To say that she is very demanding would be an understatement. Sample the list…
- Marriage should wait
- He should Talk to her parents but…
- Take a separate flat and live away from his mom
- Don’t touch her
- Change the job for better salary
- & the list is endless
She scares our Jay by disappearing, appearing again, agreeing sometimes and then not talking to him….
Will Jay give in to her? Partially yes but then is this his life?
Meera, a family friend, his boss for sometime (he was eying that promotion). A today’s woman, too fast for Jay but then she is the one who understands him. There is an undeniable attraction between the two but both are scared to explore it. Why?
Jay is in love with Tuli and believes that Meera can go to any extent for her ambition and that stops him….Meera on the other hand is busy running around fulfilling her ambitions and knows that Jay loves Tuli. Confusing? It is….
Will these two ever come together?
His Work, he is a client - servicing executive, dreams to be a copywriter….gets thrown out of this job because his mom chooses to visit his office (While Jay was with Meera) and ends up hitting his boss, urinates in his cabin and ends up in the cuffe parade poilce station.
But thanks to Meera he finds another better job, better earnings and has a better profile too. What will he do with the extra money?
Will he move out?
Then there is his over ambitious father, he meets him on & off and talks about himself only and ignores any talk relating to his wife. This frustrates Jay but then he is of use to him, this is the side of his family which is presentable to Tuli’s highly affluent family.
Link all the above characters and it become Jay’s life. A highly turbulent life thanks to his mom and Tuli. The young guy is forced to start working without actually getting a professional degree forced by the circumstance to support his ailing mother. What he lives, is a dual life & not normal by any extent. What will happen to him? Will he ever achieve anything substantial ever? Or will he always be overshadowed by circumstance & ladies in his life? To know more read the book…
Why to read?
The book is set in the background of Bombay (yet again, looks like am getting addicted to the city) and depicts the turmoil’s of the young man very beautifully.
He is bound by duty, love & desire. To choose between a psycho mother (who even beats him) and the girl he thinks he loves. It is never easy to choose in life beacuse life never gives easy choices to us….
What I liked the most about this book is the racy narrative and real to life characters.
Each character is well defined and is grey to some extent, bound by their selfish interests, pulling each other to satisfy their desires.
Don’t we use emotional blackmailing in our lives? We do, sometimes seriously, sometimes jokingly. But in the process we forget what the other person might be feeling…. To choose between your mother & girlfriend…..so many people do that…winning here is an illusiion as at the end everyone is a loser…….
The book is all about reality, dark reality of life….a face of life which we haven’t seen as we have lived a protected life. But out there in this world there is a life where wives are abandoned, kids are tortured and so are adults. And sometimes there is simply no way out of the turmoils besides….death……
Read the book to know another face of life…may be we will learn something from it….in the current mushy mushy atmoshpere of Valentines day, this is another face of love which is ruled by circumstances, sympathy, duty, desire…anything but love….
We will learn to survive against all odds, because at the end of the day life deserves another chance, doesn’t it???
“Simple, Realist, Hits u in de solar plexus”
Posted by Manas Sengupta on Mouthshut.com
Simple, Realist, Hits u in de solar plexus
MUST READ!!!!
For anyone who has faced insecurity about work!
For anyone who has craved true love!
For anyone who has felt completely at sea about things around him (/her)!
For anyone who has ever been beyond the glory days of teen and tried to find his true self.
Jai, the protagonist, is you, is me, is all of us. His is a simple story told in simple words. Thats the best part about it. Unlike many Indian authors, A Banker, does not try and prove his worthiness as an Enlish writer by using heavy 10-letter laden words. He does so by writing a book he feels about, he surely has gone through and by keeping his foot rooted to terra firma.
For people in Mumbai, u will relate to him rite from the minute details, (viz. morning rush hour local to Churchgate) to the deep rooted concerns, rather insecurities, abt work, love, family, finance etc. For people outside of Mumbai, you will still relate to all thats happening in Jai’s life. Even if u dont know where and wat Gokul is. (THose who do, cheers, lived 2 years on those cramped tables!!)
Hats off to the author for writing a simple story which encompasses everything. Just one regret. How the hell did he not write a sequel to this book??
The various reviews of the book (not just on this site) called it an Indian epic. I was circumspect.. even cynical. But trust me, if you are a middle classed working Indian, you HAVE to read the book. And to think that this book was written in 1992, not much has changed!!
As for critiquing the book on specifics, here goes.
The charaters are simple, yet clearly and honestly defined. A spade is called a spade.
The plot line moves fast. Every chapter rushes you through a major event. Its so beautifully structred, you are finishing one episode and you are already thinking ’’What Next’’.
The pace is maintained through out, and that is the only let down. Cause, even the climax is the same. It doesnt reach a greater height. Unlike wat climaxes are meant to do. They end the story witha question mark.. thought provoking yes, but fulfillin no.
All in all, read the book, just get your hands on it. You will love it. I did. And it surely is the MOST simple yet enriching book i have ever read.
Read on..
“Indian Literature on new heights”
Posted by Daniel D’Silva on Mouthshut.com
Let me confess.
I always thought that Indian writers and Indian literature was a little above soft porn and a little below melodrama a la Ekta serials.
In fact, I wouldn’t be caught dead with a Indian writer’s novel on my person. Imagine my irritation when this book found itself in my house, and that too a second hand well worn version of the book.
It was a hot Monday morning when I started reading the book, what kept me into the book was the stark reality and the logic amongst the characters, be it Jay, the Marketing guy, his collegue and companion, or his girl friend, Tuli.
All these people are someone who can look around and find almost everywhere all around you. And this is where the author has won hands down.
The author hasnt prepared a dream for us to dream about, he has prepared a mirror to our society, and so beautiful is the mirror, that we are forced to see our reflections in it.
The novel basically is the life story of the main protagonist, and how he rises in his personal and professional life, with the help of many and almost all women he has ever met.
Once again, Ashok Banker has not created any miracles or any out of the way happenings for Ajay. He has shown the generation next and all the others coming after them that there is no comparison or alternative to those golden qualities of hardwork, talent and then lady luck.
But.. what actually made he remember this novel after almost a year of reading it, is this character which still makes me squirm in embarassment whenever I think about the novel and it’s characters.
The character of Jay’s mother, the doomed woman, who dies a silent and sad death, away from the only person she ever loved, her son, is someone which will wrench the hearts of all ’career oriented young people’ and show them the stark reality of where their preferences should lie.
Read it.
