He does not want to do anything that will upset his parents and assumes they will be disappointed if they know he is gay. The author does an excellent job of showing Ved’s internal struggles. Thankfully, Dadyburjor’s novel addresses the issue. Gay rights activists do not speak about this much. While it is true that gay men experience harassment within their birth families, it is also true that many of them participate in making life a living hell for the unsuspecting women they marry. No thought is given to the ordeal that wives go through in these marriages. Gay men marry straight women, either of their own will or due to parental pressure, in order to produce sons and fulfill their patriarchal duty to continue the family line. This plot holds up a mirror to what has been happening in Indian society for a long time. Ved does not tell Carlos that he is engaged until much later in the book. Carlos and Ved meet online through a dating app. Ved leaves Disha to make the arrangements, pretending to be busy at work while he is secretly hooking up with Carlos – an American in India on a business trip. They go on several dates and are about to get engaged at a big party. He agrees to marry Disha, a woman his parents introduce him to. The novel reflects how queer people often have to navigate grief without any emotional support.ĭespite his self-righteousness, Ved ends up doing something quite similar. At this point, Ved’s parents know nothing. They can be friends and continue to have sex. Akshay believes that marriage should not change anything between them. Ved is aghast that Akshay would do this to him. We meet Ved when he is nursing a broken heart after being dumped by Akshay, who has married a woman to keep up the pretence of heterosexuality. There is a lot of mirch-masala in this novel before that happy ending (no pun intended). It is heartwarming to come across parents – in real life, and in fiction – who stand by their children and prioritize their happiness over social image and approval aka log kya kahenge. They are separated but, when it comes to their son’s well-being, they are on one team. The common thread across them is Ved, the scion of a rich business family in Mumbai. The book revolves around a set of interconnected love stories. The author weaves a tale that is believable, compelling, and emotionally alive. Ved Mehra, the 38-year-old gay man, who is the protagonist of his novel, is depicted neither as a sinner nor as a victim. Farhad J Dadyburjor’s novel The Other Man works for me because it does all of this and quite well. I have a soft corner for novels where queer characters are not condemned to persecution, where they get to experience joy and love alongside fear and despair, where their whole being is not reduced to their sexual orientation or gender identity.