Badami’s The Hero’s Walk tells the tale of the tragic death of Maya and her husband Alan in a car crash in Canada. We have only Nandana to replace her mother’s position in Sripathi’s family as a granddaughter in India. The novel is about Sripathi, his wife Nirmala and their family relationship, conveys the lives of impoverished Brahmin people living in India and it also talks about traumatized child, Nandana, who loses her family suddenly in an accident and reluctant to adopt her grandparents, their culture, tradition, surroundings and old values, which seems to be very different from her. Though she lives and grown up from the modern world, Canada that makes struggle to have a relationship with her mother’s family.
Maya’s death haunts the normal lives of her family members with her ghostly presence. Sripathi and Nirmala are reminded of their past life through memories of Maya. Maya is
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“But she made a fool of me, don’t you see that? Do you know how humiliated I felt when I went to Mr.Bhat’s house to return all those gifts? Do you realize how much she shamed me? It was okay for her to do whatever she wanted, with no thought for her family, right?” (124-25). This argument, though irritates and angers Sripathi in the beginning slowly makes him realize his mistakes. At times, he has made a comparison of his relationship with his daughter and his friend Raju’s relationship with his disabled daughter, Ragini. While Sripathi has distanced himself from Maya because of her love marriage, Raju is very different with his daughter; he is very much devoted to her. His devotion makes Sripathi to think about Maya and he feels guilty that he himself is responsible for her death. It is quite natural that one understands the value of relationship and love after the death of the loved ones because the value is felt more in their