‘Mor Udaari’ literally means flight of a peacock. The novel is woven around the visit of the main character, Arvind, from England to his native land of Punjab in India. The purpose of Arvind’s visit is to spread the ashes of his father at Kiratpur. Ironically, he fails to reach his goal before returning to England, entrusting the job of dispersing the ashes to someone else. Apparently Arvind’s disbelief in rituals hinders him, yet one cannot miss the romantic cause behind his failure to reach Kiratpur.
The writer uses various telling and showing devices in order to give an artistic touch to the narrative and to highlight the changing social reality. The novel shows the socio-economic reality and attitude of present day Punjabi middle class. In this open-ended novel, Atwal successfully presents the multi – dimensions of human existence in changing socio-cultural situations.
