The Other Man by Farhad J. Dadyburjor

Narrated by Ariyan Kassam

Farhad J. Dadyburjor’s The Other Man is one of those audiobooks I picked up on a whim – I hadn’t heard of the author (I’ve since learned he’s been an entertainment and lifestyle journalist for over twenty years) and was similarly in the dark about the narrator, but the premise of the story appealed – and I’m pleased to report that this is one of those times when a gamble paid off, because I enjoyed the story very much and Ariyan Kassam’s narration is excellent.

Ved (pronounced to my Western ears as “Wade”) Mehra seems to have it all. At thirty-eight, he’s handsome, well-off and high-status; he runs his father’s multi-million electronics corporation and as the Mehra’s only child, will one day inherit it. On the surface, he has everything a man would want – but that’s only an illusion. Life as a gay man in a very conservative society where homosexuality is still illegal (the book is set around the time when the law against homosexuality was eventually repealed – which wasn’t until 2018) is difficult and often disheartening; Ved can’t live openly and honestly, yet he can’t face the idea of coming out to his parents, knowing what a dreadful disappointment it would be to them to discover he isn’t the perfect Indian son. He had thought, a few years back, that he’d found someone to share his life with (albeit in secret), until Akshay announced he was bowing to the inevitable and going ahead with the marriage that had been arranged for him. The break-up was four years ago, and Ved has never found anyone else he wanted to spend time with, instead filling the void with endless work and having meaningless hook-ups when he wants sex.

As if he’s not feeling sad and pathetic enough, his mother Dolly is continually pressuring him to get married. This isn’t anything out of the ordinary – arranged marriages are still a really big part of Indian culture (a google search revealed that in 2018, over 90% of respondents said their marriage had been an arranged one) – but “when are you getting married?” or a variation of it is part of every single conversation Ved has with Dolly, and having to deflect her all the time is exhausting. When her nagging gets too much, he decides he’ll do the same thing he’s done the last couple of times she’s found him a potential wife; he’ll go on a date with the woman, then say that she wasn’t right, and Dolly will leave him alone for a while – until the next time.

Overworked, lonely and miserable, Ved finally caves to pressure and agrees to meet with Disha Kapoor, whose father owns a large media company which would make their marriage a perfect business merger, too. Fully prepared to employ his usual strategy, Ved is surprised to find that he actually likes Disha and enjoys her company; she’s beautiful, well-educated, funny and clever, she owns her own business designing and making custom Indian wedding outfits, and Ved is forced to admit that his mother had been right – she’d make a perfect wife.

Proving that fate has an extremely good sense of irony, on the very day that Ved finally arranges his first date with Disha, he gets a Grindr notification from JaipurVisitor asking Ved if he wants to chat. At first, Ved tries to brush him off, but before long, he and JaipurVisitor – Carlos, a New Yorker working in Jaipur – are chatting daily, Carlos telling Ved about the things he’s seen and done in Jaipur, Ved telling Carlos about his life in Mumbai – carefully omitting any mention of Disha. They share their real names and take their interactions off Grindr and into texts, and eventually Carlos says he’s coming to Mumbai for a few weeks and wants to meet up.

While he’s been getting to know Carlos, Ved has sort of fallen into officially dating Disha, and now they’re hurtling towards an engagement. Ved has convinced himself, however, that he won’t let things get that far, that he’ll tell his parents – and Disha – the truth, but he keeps putting it off and telling himself he’ll do it ‘soon’. Except he doesn’t. Even after Carlos arrives and they start falling in love, Ved continues to keep his secrets, knowing he’s digging himself a deeper and deeper hole. Yet the weeks he spends with Carlos are some of the best of Ved’s life. Carlos is a great guy; handsome and funny and sweet and chatty, and the scenes where he and Ved are together and Ved is actually happy are just lovely. Ved knows he’s in the wrong and that he stands to hurt the people he most cares about – his parents, Disha and Carlos – but he’s now so deep into the tangled web that he can’t see a way out of it – and we know it’s all going to blow up in his face.

The Other Man is a lively, feel-good story about living your own life and not the one that is expected of you, and it moves along at a swift pace and features engaging and sympathetic characters. That the author accomplishes this despite the fact that Ved is lying to his nearest and dearest for almost the entire book is quite something; instead of coming off as a deceitful shit (and I freely admit there were times I wanted to smack him upside the head and tell him to take responsibility for his own life!) Ved is skilfully portrayed as a man crumbling under the weight of expectation whose life is slowly spiralling out of control, and his indecision, while incredibly frustrating, is – given his upbringing and deeply ingrained cultural mindset – understandable. And while Ved’s romance with Carlos – and his friendship with Disha – are important parts of the story, the book is as much about his personal growth and at last finding himself and the courage to choose happiness as it is about him finding love.

I had a few niggles along the way though. Firstly, I was surprised that Ved took Carlos back home for ‘sleepovers’ (there are no sex scenes, it’s all fade-to-black) to the apartment he shares with his father, and I found it hard to believe that Carlos never once googled Ved, who is, after all, a well-known figure in the business community. But I loved the way the city of Mumbai comes so vibrantly to life; its traditions and food and culture are wonderfully and vividly described. The ending is maybe a bit cheesy, but I didn’t mind it – after waiting so long for Ved to find happiness, it was still worth the wait!

Ariyam Kassam appears to be relatively new to the world of audiobook narration, but he delivers a wonderfully assured and enjoyable performance that really brings the characters and story to life. He employs a variety of tone, accent and timbre to provide distinct and appropriate voices for all the characters and differentiates skilfully between them, and he does a great job when bringing out the humour and emotions in the story. Mr. Kassam’s female voices are great, too – his portrayal of Dolly is hilarious and I loved the way he voices Disha, with a kind of hybrid American/Indian accent. Talking of accents, the American one he uses for Carlos is flawless and his ability to switch seamlessly from one accent to another is impressive. It’s a terrific performance that contributed considerably to my enjoyment of the listening experience.

The publisher’s blurb labels The Other Man a “rom com”, but I disagree; rather, it’s a contemporary romance with moments of humour and light-heartedness which also tackles some serious themes. It’s a thought-provoking story full of warmth and charm, the narration is excellent, and I’m happy to recommend it.

Caz

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