The novel „Karan“ is the story of a young man named Dev, who – by means of the exceptional love for a special person - discovers who he is and how he can fight the demons of the past to find his true place in the world.

Synopsis

Always strong, always passionate, always stubborn as a mule – that’s Dev. As a newly wed husband he travels from India to London to make his dream of becoming a theatre actor come true. But in the British capital he is forced rather quickly to face not only professional challenges. While experiencing a gradual and sometimes painful identification process and looking for his place in the world, he also has to fight for the love of his life - and discovers soon that both items are connected inseparably.

Character biographies

Main characters

Devakumar „Dev“ Rao:

Central character of the novel is Dev, who follows his dream and moves from India to London, striving to work as a theatre actor. He is a confident man, radiating enormous charisma, who knows exactly what he wants and does not shy away from homosexual favours to achieve his goals and care for himself and his family. Dev gives the impression of being always strong, allows himself no weaknesses and – due to being a hothead - sometimes tries too hard to get his way. He is more of a maker than a thinker, which does not mean that he is not sensitive. Three items constitute his inner motivation and determine his life: his theatrical ambitions, his permanent restlessness and the death of his English mother, which hurts him still. There is no contact between him and his Indian father Arun.

Karan Chaudhary Mahal:

Karan is a strikingly sensitive, shy and pensive person and has great problems in trusting others. His life is very much determined by his fears, which stem from having been tortured a lot in the past due to his being different (high intelligence, interest in creative topics, overweight and so on). Since then he has retreated into his shell, so that you can rarely get a glimpse at his true personality. He longs for closeness, but is not able to muster enough courage to leave his self-induced isolation, suffering from so many insecurities. Furthermore Karan is desperate about knowing he is gay. He believes that being gay isolates him even further from his environment and disappoints the people around him all the more. Most of the time he hides in the shelter of his few friends and books and avoids contact to strangers.

Minor characters

Tara Rao:

Tara is Dev’s wife, a small and energetic person with enormous common sense and a heart of gold. Unfortunately her temper, however, equals Dev’s in a way that they are often unable to find a possibility to talk to each other reasonably. She loves her family and Dev endlessly and is willing to do everything to make them happy.

Chandni Rao:

Chandni is Dev’s younger sister. Her looks give away her Indian heritage of their father even less than Dev’s. Compared to him she is a more level-headed sort of person. Despite her reservation, however, like him she knows what she wants and takes it. In difficult moments of life she is often the one with most access to her sultry brother. Chandni falls in love with Dev’s bodyguard Jonathan.

Meghna Mahal:

Meghna is Karan’s uncommon mother, a freethinker who is most unwilling to let herself restrain in her way of seeing the world. She loves her boy unconditionally and allows him his freedom, because she knows that this is the only way he can come to terms with himself and the world around him. Happily married to Amar, she does not meddle with other people’s affairs, but keeps a caring eye on everyone dear to her heart.

Amarkant „Amar“ Chaudhary Mahal:

Amar is a somewhat balky, but at the same time good-natured man. In his anger he is often carried away and can get loud quickly, but he calms down in just a minute. He is a self-made man, who does not understand his family most of the time, but adores them by all means. Amar needs some time to get used to Karan being gay, but then accepts this fact 100%, just like everything else he does. His relationship with Dev is one of trust at first sight.

Clara Richards:

Clara is Karan’s only friend since childhood. She is the daughter of a diplomat, loud and extrovert, seductively wild and sometimes rude. The contrast between Karan and herself seems to complement the two of them, so that they are very comfortable with each other. She is also working as an actress at the Jadoo Theatre and develops a very successful chemistry on stage with Dev. Initially she is the only one who knows about Karan’s sexual orientation and in general notices more than is widely believed of her.

Jaswinder „Jai“ Singh:

Jai is stage designer and is hired by Amar at the recommendation of Dev. His bodybuilder-like build results in great difficulties for Karan, who made some very bad experiences with beefy men. Although Jai appears to be a rather insensitive, fun loving and boastful type of guy in public, he is secretly very perceptively, e.g. when he adapts his behaviour towards Karan according to his fear. Jai and Dev are very old friends. Dev’s bodyguard is also a friend of his.

Jonathan Sinclair:

Jonathan is a very reserved man whose thoughts are hardly decipherable. He demands a lot from himself and has perfectionist tendencies. Dev hires him as his bodyguard at Tara’s request, when his over-night success as an actor requires more security. Soon Jonathan is confronted with a moral and professional dilemma as he gradually develops affections for the Rao family, above all for Chandni.

Arun Rao:

Arun is Dev’s father, an Indian travel guide with similar impressive charisma who married a British woman against all odds. As his marriage – not his love – becomes a victim to everyday conditions, his son takes up a rigid stance against him. Arun is a wise, understanding man and has great insight in human nature.

Adrian Gregory:

Gregory is an English theatre director enjoying a secret taste for young men. Dev meets him right at the beginning of his stay in England. Although he as member of the British aristocracy gives the impression of being a charming and lofty gentleman, in reality Gregory has a quite ruthless and cold streak. His reasons to support Dev financially are more than selfish regarding his demand for sexual services in return.

 

Content

One day during his nerve-wracking search for work in London Dev meets Karan, not knowing that the young man is the son of the owner of the Jadoo Theatre, where he plans to apply on the next day. The two men are fond of each other at first sight so that, in contrast to his usual habits, the shy and reclusively living Karan offers Dev a bed for the night. As Dev is hired by Karan’s father Amarkant Mahal, the special bond between them remains.

Having a job now, Dev wants to bring his family to England. On the day before flying back to India to make the necessary arrangements, Karan invites him to stay another night in his apartment. Although Karan has sworn by himself never to tell Dev, he is not able to suppress his feelings any longer. He confesses that he is gay and also admits that he is very much attracted by Dev.

Karan, desperate and scared, assumes that Dev will abandon him now that he knows the truth. But Dev is dismayed by Karan’s misery and longs to help him. Since he has already experienced homosexual intercourse and is touched by Karan in a most unfamiliar way, he decides to bestow Karan his “first time”. He shows him what it is like to love someone physically, but at the same time makes it very clear that he is a married man and they will only have this one night.

In these few hours, however, something happens to both men not to be eluded: they fall in love. Because of different reasons they both don’t stand by their feelings. So they say good-bye to each other on the next day, hiding broken hearts and intending to be friends in the future.

This intention turns out to be more difficult to follow as foreseen. Unnoticed by both of them, it soon becomes obvious for the people around that there is a very special and uncommonly close bond between them. Whereas Dev is the only person able to approach the extremely introvert Karan, only Karan is able to have a mollifying effect on Dev, who is constantly under pressure. Meghna and Amar Mahal, Karans liberal parents, support their friendship or whatever else they assume their relationship to be. They are simply grateful that someone frees their son from his self-induced isolation and gives him courage enough to work as director and author at the Jadoo. In the course of time the two families Rao and Mahal grow close.

Although Dev and Karan - respectively – continue their efforts to keep away from each other, numerous events keep occurring, during which they cannot absolutely control their feelings. Finally Karan even thinks about going abroad to escape his longing for Dev. Karan isn’t aware that Dev’s marriage is nearly finished at this point of time. Living together gets increasingly difficult for Dev and Tara, but before they begin to hate each other, they want to save what can be saved and decide to become friends instead of lovers.

In the meantime Dev has understood to whom his heart really belongs. However, since he believes that Karan considers him only to be a friend, he does not reveal his feelings for him – for the time being. But the permanent efforts of maintaining family harmony, the sudden death of a beloved person, a serious operation and his desperate yearning for Karan for so many years undermine Dev’s determination so that he finally gives in and is willing to tell Karan the truth.

The events result in a sensual meeting that will change the relationship between the two men forever...