K R Meera’s absorbing novel, Hang Woman: Everyone Loves a Good Hanging, tells the story of the Grddha Mullick family of West Bengal who have been executioners for several generations. The present executioner, Phanibhushan, who has carried out more than 400 hangings, is now old. He successfully petitions the government to give the job to his daughter Chetna, who is 22. Now she is tasked to execute a hanging.
Remarkably, the novel is set in Kolkata, a city that Kottayam-based Meera does not know at all, except through the translated works of Rabindranath Tagore, Tara Shankar Bandopadhyay and Bimal Mitra.
Asked why she decided to set her novel in an alien setting, Meera says, “I had always wanted to write a book on women empowerment in India, but I was not sure where to place my characters. It was at this time that I came to know about the hanging of Dhananjay Chatterjee (convicted for killing a teenage girl), in Kolkata, on August 14, 2004. So, I thought it may be a good idea to set the story there.”
Meera carried out exhaustive research through books, newspapers, as well as the Internet and collected material on the people, police, streets, prostitutes, local culture, as well as the last executioner of Bengal, Nata Mallick (1921-2009). She then started writing and took about one-and-a-half years to complete the novel.
The book, originally published in Malayalam as Aarachaar in 2011, has remained a bestseller ever since. And now the English version is getting good reviews too. On a book promotion tour in Kochi, Meera beams at this remark with her smile reaching her dark, kohl-lined eyes.
Today, this soft-spoken writer is regarded as a star among the younger writers of Malayalam literature. A prominent and award-winning journalist for many years, Meera quit the profession in 2005 to become a full-time writer. She initially made her mark by publishing collections of short stories like Ormayude Njarambu, Moha Manja and Ave Maria. In fact, Ave Maria won the prestigious Kerala Sahitya Akademi Award in 2009.
Meera is also a columnist as well as a scriptwriter. Incidentally, the script for Ore Kadal (which won the National Award for Best Music Direction), which Meera wrote, has a Bengali connection. It is based on a novel, Hirak Deepthi, written by one of Bengal’s premier writers, the late Sunil Gangopadhyay.
However, Meera’s heart lies in the short story format. “Every short story is a challenge,” says Meera. “It requires a lot of editing and careful selection of words. In a novel, things can be a bit loose, at times.”