Paper Title
Quest for Identity of the Male Protagonist ‘Shrikant’ in the Novel ‘Gently Falls the Bakula’ Mrs. Sudha Murty

Abstract
This paper presents the ‘Quest for Identity’ of the male protagonist Shrikant in the novel ‘Gently Falls the Bakula’ by Mrs. Sudha Murty. The incredible journey from a trainee Engineer to the Managing Director of the company in a span of a decade is traced minutely and his character traits are critically analysed. His personality traits as confidence, courage, intelligence, opportunistic thinking, vision and decision making are analysed with reference to his life situations. His behavior in his different roles as son, husband, boss, colleague and a friend is analysed and the dominant personality traits of ambition, perseverance, hunger to succeed, tenacity of purpose are highlighted. The Existential concept of ‘Quest for Identity’ which comes under the theory of Existentialism is analysed with reference to the different stages of his life and the spark in his personality that has the power to illuminate the entire horizon is highlighted in this paper. Shrikant moves towards an authentic existence, he rewrites his destiny and like a phoenix rises from humble background. Keywords - Quest for Identity, Authenticity, Existentialism.