Aasiyah Qamar & Nolwynn Ardennes

If marriage is the end of the road, does life exist after divorce?

For most cultures, especially in traditional ones, a woman's life starts and ends with marriage. In Indo- Mauritian culture, it is no different. Back in 1840 until the early 1900s, Indians have flocked to the tiny then-British colony of Mauritius to work in the cane fields as indentured labour after the abolition of slavery in 1835. They brought with them their culture, way of life, conventions, and beliefs, settling among other immigrants such as the Chinese, the Creoles who descend from African slaves, and the French-Mauritians (more commonly known as the Whites), descendants of the former French settlers of the island.

The idea of the original Indian culture however mingled and merged with the other cultures on the island to give the truly unique melting pot that is the Mauritian culture. Yet, values and conventions still remain, to this day, well-anchored in every cultural group's mindset and ways. The Indo-Mauritian culture, be it for the Hindus or the Muslims who came from this land, still bears striking resemblances to the ways of India where tradition and customs are concerned. Faith is not the issue as much as the way of life follows the same steps and manners.

Against this backdrop, my heroine, Lara Reddy - born Lara Hemant - is a born and bred Londoner who finds herself spending a few of her teenage years on the island when her parents return back to their native land. This is how she encounters Eric Marivaux, a Mauritian who descends from former French settlers. It's Love on Cloud 9 for them.

However, as the eldest of 3 daughters, and with a mother whose main aim in life is to steer her daughters in the 'proper' ways of traditional culture, Lara is torn. At a turning point in her life, she agrees to an arranged marriage with Roy Reddy, the son of a family friend who lives in London.

Ten years later, the marriage is over and Lara is now a divorcee. Jumping on the offer of a prestigious job in Mauritius, she travels back to the island, to encounter a more than rigid society. And she also meets Eric again.

To face up to this whole conventions-gossip-culture set-up, I needed a strong heroine. She had to be someone who in appearance handled everything perfectly. But behind the facade, she is a normal woman - with her fears, longings and dreams. Lara's dreams were simple - to reach all her goals career-wise, and life-wise. At twenty-nine, she has managed the career heights really well, but her love life is proportionately a mess. Added to that, the pressure and woes of a culture she never really fitted into, and she was lost - without any bearing she could turn to.

This issue is cropping up more and more in traditional cultures - youngsters facing the loss of culture in an increasingly globalised world, yet wanting and sometimes needing this framework of values to guide their path in a world where bearings get blurred with every passing second. 

This same issue brings with it notions that what used to be strictly prohibited in the past is proving to be more and more acceptable to the newer generations.

From this frame of mind emerges Eric Marivaux, a young man who has achieved all his goals in life - at thirty-one, he is a successful and renowned paediatrician, except for the fact that he has lost the only woman he's ever loved - Lara.

For Eric, I needed an incredible man, since he was the first hero I created and also for him to be the balance Lara needed. He was to be her rock, her security, hr anchor in the rolling waves of today's world. Eric thus emerged as any woman's idea of the perfect man - handsome as a Greek God, compassionate, attentive, respectful, chivalrous, and willing to go to any heights to win the woman he is sure is the one for him. Yet, Eric is also a deeply human person, a man with deep-set ideals and values. He will never accept to compromise on them, even for the sake of love.

Thrown in across this whole endeavour is Lara's neurotic mother. She rocks the boat at every opportunity, and like the true Indian mother she is, all her actions stem from good intentions. However, she only manages to wreak even more havoc in her daughters' lives.

Against this backdrop of Mauritian society ways, Lara is thrown on a journey loaded with potholes and stumbling blocks. Yet, as her life spins out of control, Lara also realizes that maybe the most important journey she needs to undertake is one of self-discovery, where she will find herself and be able to firmly establish her roots so that she can live her life to the fullest.

I often work with music when I'm writing, and the 'theme' song that kept inserting itself for this story was 'If there's any justice' by Lemar. If there was any justice in the world, love would win, even on the other side and after all the hurdles that Fate can send along the way.

The setting of this story is obviously Mauritius. The story is however concentrated on the northern part of the island, the tourist village of Grand-Baie, known as the Cote d'Azur of Mauritius, where Lara lives and where the conventions centre she manages is fictionally situated. Eric's villa is also in that area, further to the east of Grand-Baie in the coastal village of Cap Malheureux. The pictures on this page have all been shot on the public beach of Grand-Baie. The view of Cap Malheureux I mention in the book is that of the Coin de Mire island, a jutting rock a few hundred metres off the coast, which you can see on the cover of the book. 

Against this backdrop of paradise, The Other Side goes into the everyday world of the island and its inhabitants. Though it is not hell, it's not a little slice of heaven either, especially when life decides to butt in.