Half Light locations with Mahesh Rao

Submitted: 3rd September 2025

Half Light locations with Mahesh Rao

Meet the author behind Half Light. And wait until you hear what he has to say about why he wrote the book and where it’s set – and why that is important for the messages it carries.

Mahesh-Rao

Location map of Half Light

‘Half Light’ begins with a chance encounter between two young men who become lovers. We then follow them through a period of four years leading up to the 2018 decriminalisation of homosexuality in India. It was clear to me from the outset that the novel would comprise two distinct halves, separated by a dramatic incident involving the two protagonists. It was therefore important that each half have a particularly different setting. This almost gave the impression of two linked novellas, with their own specific sense of place.

Darjeeling

Location map of Half Light

The first half of the novel is set in the outskirts of Darjeeling, in the shadow of the Himalayas. I wanted to create a sense of claustrophobia and inevitability when the two men meet. So, a decrepit hotel on the edge of a forest in an area vulnerable to landslides seemed the perfect place for this to happen.

While Darjeeling suffers the same problems of chronic and unplanned over-development as many hill towns in India, it does retain much of its beauty and charm. I feel a little guilty that in my rendering it appears mostly cold and bleak. My version has leaden skies and a dismal hotel that no informed person would ever choose to stay in. But these alas were the demands of the novel.

Half Light Mahesh Rao

Location map of Half Light

I visited Darjeeling a few years ago during a severe winter, and my hotel was modest but altogether quite decent. It was, however, not a match for that particular December. I remember having to go to bed wearing almost all the clothes I had brought. I remember seeing my breath condense into fine trails in the room. I also remember the strangely groaning bar heater emitting only a tiny ring of warmth.

That experience led me to the creation of the infinitely worse fictional Golden Peaks Hotel. The Darjeeling setting also allowed me to explore one protagonist’s affinity with nature. His fascination with the area’s bird life and dependence on the forest’s shifting light in his few moments of leisure are matters I could explore in a different way when he finally moves to a huge, teeming city.

Mumbai

Location map of Half Light

Both of the young men live in Mumbai in the second half of the novel. I felt it was important that they are now surrounded by the hard edges of an unforgiving city. A city which is very distant in every sense from the mountain peaks, the thin air and the isolation outside Darjeeling. The change in their relationship takes effect amidst the city’s heat, crowds and clamour.

A crucial scene takes place on Marine Drive at the southern tip of the city. Marine Drive is a sweeping promenade lined with the art deco facades of weathered buildings, a panorama of curved balconies and crumbling stucco, punctuated by porthole windows or a sunburst motif in yellow or pink. It is an inviting place, open and free to anyone in a city with continually shrinking access to public spaces. It is also a location that has appeared in innumerable books, films, brochures and posters — and that did make me wonder whether I should pick a different place.

Location map of Half Light

In the end, I decided that the scene really would work best on Marine Drive and it was the work of the writing to separate the action from anything cliched or predictable about its setting. By contrast, I chose to locate another scene in a part of the city that I’m sure appears in few guide books or travel sites. The vast salt pans at the north-eastern extremity of the city are visually captivating, their glittering white expanses seeming to hold the never-ending assault of the city’s construction at bay. They act as a vital flood defence and are also important wetlands that provide a habitat for numerous species of migratory birds. An area that might be unfamiliar even to many Mumbai residents, it also served to provide a stage for a crucial shift in a protagonist’s consciousness.

Location map of Half Light

While writing this book, I spent a long time weighing up every choice of setting, the places having to be perfect for all the different cross-currents of class, gender and sexual orientation that make up the novel. I feel lucky that both Indian locations offered up such a rich choice.