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? *
