In the first chapter of her novel The Other Side of Light, Indian writer Mishi Saran introduces the reader to the novel’s protagonist––Asha––who has to leave the country of her birth. Based on the excerpt, the writer has designed a series of teaching materials. She first invites students to discuss questions about the text, focusing on characterization and the overall mood. She later walks us through some in-class activities and writing prompts that carefully guide students to rewrite her story by modifying several elements of it.
Mishi Saran
Mishi Saran’s first novel The Other Side of Light (HarperCollins India, 2012) was shortlisted for the 2013 Commonwealth Book Prize. In 2018, Penguin reissued her acclaimed 2005 Silk Road travelogue Chasing the Monk’s Shadow: A Journey in the Footsteps of Xuanzang. She is finishing a novel about 1930s Shanghai and is an MFA candidate at Vermont College of Fine Arts (2022).
Fiction by
Mishi Saran
The Other Side of Light (HarperCollins India)