Podcast with Mahesh Rao, author of “Half Light”
On 6 September 2018, India’s Supreme Court ruled that Section 377, a law that criminalized consensual homosexual activity, was unconstitutional, reversing an earlier decision from 2013. Both news headlines and LGBT activists hailed the decision as a major step forward for same-sex rights in India.
But in Mahesh Rao’s new novel Half Light, the court’s deliberations sit in the background behind the budding relationship between Pavan, a hotel worker in Darjeeling, and Neville, a young, confident student. They meet first in Pavan’s hotel in Darjeeling in 2014; after a tragic incident, they meet again four years later, in Mumbai in 2018. We’re joined again by Prarthana Prakash as a guest host.Mahesh Rao grew up in Nairobi, Kenya. He has worked as a lawyer, academic researcher and bookseller in the UK. His debut novel The Smoke is Rising won the Tata First Book Award for fiction. His short fiction has been shortlisted for numerous awards. One Point Two Billion, his collection of short stories set across 13 Indian states, and Polite Society, a Delhi-set reimagining of Jane Austen’s Emma, have both been published to critical acclaim. Mahesh has written for the New York Times, The Baffler, Prospect and Elle.
