‘A Menace to Family Cocoon’ in Rohinton Mistry’s Novel Such a Long Journey

Abstract

Rohinton Mistry’s first novel, Such a Long Journey, creates a vivid picture of Indian family life and culture. Indian middle class family pattern is nuclear. All family members live in cordial relationship. Relationship between parents and children is based mostly on conventional practices. The present novel centers around the family of a Parsi gentleman called Gustad Noble who works as a bank clerk. He was deeply devoted to his work and his family of wife Dilnavaz, two sons Sohrab and Darius and a daughter Roshan. Gustad is living in socially and financially petty circumstances which has left him nostalgic for his grandfather’s days. He cherishes dreams of regaining his family’s lost prosperity through his eldest son Sohrab’s admission in prestigious Indian Institute of Technology. It is the only hope for him to carve out a space for himself and his family in a country where politics of regionalism plays a key role and affects common man’s life and gives feeling of ‘otherness’.