The Other Side of the Rainbow A Tragedy of Misreading and Silence

The Other Side of the Rainbow :  A Tragedy of Misreading and Silence

Deepshikha Routray

Nayak, Niranjan. The Other Side of the Rainbow. Notionpress, 2024. Pp. 248. Rs. 299/-

The novel, The Other Side of the Rainbow, is an attempt to chronicle the inner tumult of a young man scarred by poverty, trauma, and emotional isolation, and to do so with honesty and psychological depth is not at all an easy feat. Yet Niranjan Nayak, in this debut novel, manages it precisely through a fictional account that has its roots in his deeply lived and intimately felt experiences. As Pati remarks, “A private emotion arising out of a lived experience of Nayak’s has, with the years, snowballed into a story so huge that it clamours, as it were, for a public appearance” (Foreword, p. vii). This ‘clamour’ takes form in a compelling, emotionally layered narrative that defies easy categorisation. The novel doesn’t cover a full developmental arc typical of a bildungsroman.