In September 2018, the Supreme Court of India passed its judgment on one of the most controversial laws in India. Years after decriminalising and re-criminalising, in 2018, the Court finally struck down Section 377, removing the illegality attached to same-sex consensual relationships in private. Mahesh Rao’s latest novel, Half Light, is set against the backdrop of this 2018 judgment, following two young men. Timely, urgent and deeply unsettling, it comes at a time when queer rights continue to be contested both in domestic spaces and governing bodies.
Desires and quips
Half Light starts with Pavan, a 24-year-old man, who’s suddenly had an emergency at the hotel he works in. There is a landslide at the bend of the road and the guests have no way to leave the hotel. As he manages the kerfuffle, his eyes dart past a young man who smiles furtively at him. Pavan chooses to ignore it because Neville is a guest with two women who demand a little too much. As the days change in Darjeeling’s foggy and mystical silence, Pavan and Neville draw closer. The growing intensity between the two men also carries the scent of fear and anxiety. It is ominous and soon it is revealed on a dark, still...
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