STORM IN CHANDIGARH: A TALE OF INTERPERSONAL INCOMPATIBILITY

Abstract

Nayantara Sahgal’s third novel Storm in Chandigarh like her other novels presents a juxtaposition of two worlds: The personal world of man-woman relationship and the interpersonal world of politics. The interpersonal incompatibility happens to be the most dominant subject in the novel depicting the Husband-Wife alienation resulting from lack of communication, extra-marital relationship, existentialistic problems and temperamental irreconcilability. The storm in the lives of three married couples Inder and Saroj, Jit and Mara and Vishal and Leela is portrayed against the political backdrop of storm or confrontation between the newly divided states of Punjab and Haryana over the issue of Chandigarh.

The characters in the novel are at the same time modern as well as traditional in their outlook of life which is clearly presented through their attitude to love, morality, education, man woman relationship and architecture. In this paper my intention is to provide the predicament of interpersonal incompatibility between male and female characters in the backdrop of an unresolved clash of political personalities.