NAVIGATION AND REINVENTION IN BHARATI MUKHERJEE'S "JASMINE" AND "MISS NEW INDIA"

Bharati Mukherjee (1940-2017) had been a dominant writer of Indian origin settled in Canada and then in the United States of America. Her stories are about psychological navigation and reinvention especially about women immigrant in an alien land. This research paper focuses mainly on the character of Jasmine protagonist of the novel "Jasmine" and on Anjali the character of "Miss New India". Jasmine metamorphoses. Herself constantly ferrying between these multiple identities. (Jyoti, Jasmine, Jase and Jane) by navigating herself in different spaces and at different times. In the novel "Miss New India" Anjali is torn between a life described by traditional rituals and a life of Independence in the gleaming metropolis of Bangalore (now Bengaluru). Anjali begins to realize that to survive she has to forget the ideals that she held dear and needs to re-invent herself in the ways she never dreams of. Both Jasmine and Anjali navigate and re-invent themselves facing travails and tribulations because of their realizations that America or big Indian cities are their ultimate destination with a hope of permanent settlement. They tide over the present situation to the unknown resulting in reinventing themselves.