KR Meera

Born : 19 February 1970


 Birthplace : Sasthamkotta, Kollam

 Novelist, short story writer, journalist

 Education : Master's degree in
Communicative English

 Started writing fiction in 2001

 Published: Five collections of short stories, two novellas, five
novels, two children's books

 Won the Kerala Sahitya Akademi Award in 2008 for her short-story,
Ave Maria.

 Aararachar (2012 ) Is widely regarded as one of the best literary

works produced in Malayalam language.
2004: Gita Hiranyan Endowment Award by Kerala Sahitya
Akademi - Ormayude Njarampu

2008: Kerala Sahitya Akademi Award for Story - Ave Maria

2013: Odakkuzhal Award - Aarachaar

2013: Kerala Sahitya Akademi Award for Novel - Aarachaar

2014: Vayalar Award - Aarachaar6]

2015: Kendra Sahitya Akademi Award - Aarachaar

2016: Shortlisted for the DSC Prize for South Asian
2016: Shortlisted
Literature - Hangwoman for(Translated
the DSC by J. Devika
Prize for South Asian Literature -
Hangwoman (Translated by J.
Devika)
 Hangwoman: Everyone Loves
a Good Hanging
Characters :

 Chetna Grddha Mullick (chetu)

 Phanibhushan Grddha Mullick (baba)
 Sachinmayi Devi (Maa)
 Bhuvaneswari Devi (thakuma)
 Ramu da (brother)
 Sanjeev Kumar Mitra ( Sanju babu)
 Jatindranath Banerjee
 Shyamili Devi (Kakima)
 Sukhdev Grddha Mullick (Kaku)
Plot Summary
 When we first heard the news on TV that the
governor had rejected Jatindranath Banerjee’s
mercy petition, the first hearse of the day had just
rolled towards Nimtala Ghat. It passed by our
house—in which huddle together a hairdressing
salon, a dirty single-room shrine and a tea shop
lined with small earthen cups— on Strand Road.
Chitpur, where our house stands, was always of
the black folk. We have been here for ever so long
—long before the Europeans divided Kolkata into
White and Black towns,
 451 hangings

 the first newspaper man was at our doorstep. Narendra

Choudhuri, local correspondent of the Anandabazar
Patrika. I stepped out when I saw him. When I passed
the Plus Two exams, he had reported it: ‘Hangman’s
daughter scores high distinction in Plus Two exams’.
 As he left on his scooter through the hustle and
bustle, I recalled my job as a proofreader in Sri
Maruti Press on Madan Chatterjee Lane when I
was just out of Plus Two.--50 rupees..

 I was correcting the errors in ‘Ekla chalo, ekla

chalo, ekla chalo, ekla chalo re . . .’ when two
hands slid under my armpits and spread
themselves on my breasts. Because the stink of
paan and the reek of sweat invaded my nostrils
suddenly, I knew it was Maruti Prasad,He was a
couple of inches shorter than me when I stood
up.
Very slowly, I took the dupatta off my chest. He gawked
greedily at my breasts. I tied a noose in the bat of an
eyelid and, smiling at him, put it around his neck like a
marriage garland. Before he could pull me closer, I had
tightened the noose, passing the other end of the
dupatta through the window bars and pulling it tight. His
mouth gaped open. His eyes popped. His tongue
protruded and paan juice flowed from it like blood. He
struggled hard. But I took all that force on my left arm.
He thrashed about desperately, his eyeballs bulged and
his tongue hung close to his chin. Slowly, I eased my grip.
He collapsed, panting, barely conscious.
 Ours has been a family of famous hangmen for very
long, right from the times when the Nanda kings
ruled the land.

 Before Bharat became Bharat, before three villages

between the swamp and the forest beside the
Hooghly became Kolkata, there was power and
crime and death penalty in the country. The very
first hangman in our family was Radharaman
Mullick.He was the palace doctor.

 That greatgreat-great-great-great-great-great
grandfather fell madly in love with a woman who
came to him with a fever. She was the beloved of
the prince, the true heir to the kingdom. Thakuma
said that our forefather of yore became a hangman
so that he could possess her.
 may 18 th - Jatindranath Banerjee’s hanging will be
the first to happen in India in thirteen years. But
after hangman Phanibhushan Grddha Mullick made
it clear that he will not work unless his demands
have been met, plans for Jatindranath’s execution
take a new turn.’ The handsome young man looked
into my eyes and announced this.

 ‘My son Ramdev . . . my son was cut down by the

father of Amartya Ghosh whom I hanged at the
gallows in 1990 . . .’ Father pulled hard on the
burning cigarette. Suddenly my heart fell. We never
spoke of that day. In 1990, Ramu da had been my
age, twentytwo.
 The evidence of this was in the stories about Grandfather
Bhishma Grddha Mullick. He lived during the reign of the
eighth-century Pala kings.

 Once, a Hindu sannyasi was condemned to death. His crime

was that he spoke against the Buddhist faith.

 The sannyasi laughed and told the king, Maharaja, you

cannot kill me. I am only forty now. According to the stars, I
will die only after I turn a hundred.

 when the sannyasi stood in the gallows ready for the noose,
news arrived that one of the queens had given birth. The
hanging was postponed on the advice of the astrologers. It
would be carried out ninety days later. Exactly ninety days
later, the queen died. Mourning declared for forty-one days.
 But the king’s foster mother died the night before that
dawn. In this way, for some reason or the other, the
death by hanging was put off seven times.

 Deva Pala ascended the throne after Dharma Pala.This

man, who had evaded death so many times, must be
despatched swiftly, they yelled. My ancestor felt the
sannyasi’s skin. His blood vessels were boiling. It is time,
Grandfather Bhishma said. It is time, the sannyasi
repeated. He pulled the rope. The sannyasi died without
the slightest distress. My forefather returned home that
night and had an oil bath. He prayed to Ma Kali, cutting
his right thumb and letting the blood fall, then had a
sumptuous meal and went to bed. He died peacefully in
his sleep.
 Amartya Ghosh. He had been convicted for the murder of four—
the south Calcutta industrialist Chandrasen Ghosh and his three
children, aged ten, six and three. The good-looking Amartya had
been a servant in Chandrasen Ghosh’s house. He and Chandrasen’s
wife, Devapriya, fell in love. When their relationship became
intense, he demanded that she leave with him. She refused. He
was furious. The mad frenzy of love possessed him. One night,
when Chandrasen went into Devapriya’s room and shut the door,
Amartya lost all control.

 He took a gun from Chandrasen’s room, went upstairs, opened

the door to the children’s room and turned on the lights. Standing
at the door, he shot all three children dead, one by one. Only the
oldest child managed to scream; the youngest did not get a
chance. Chandrasen, who rushed up on hearing the commotion,
fell next. Devapriya fainted in shock. By the time the other
servants and the security guards hurried in, Amartya had
escaped.

 On 4 July 1990, his death sentence was confirmed.

 The caption of the photo was: ‘Hangman Phanibhushan Grddha
Mullick displaying the noose that he has readied for Amartya
Ghosh; in the background, his only son, second-year MA student
of literature at New Providence College, Ramdev Grddha Mullick.’
Amartya’s body was cremated at Nimtala Ghat. His parents
carried his body past our house with tearless eyes. When his pyre
was lit, his aged mother tried to end her life by throwing herself
on it. Badly burned, she died in the hospital. Two days later, his
father lay in wait for Ramu da and attacked him. Ramu da was
returning from college after a game of football and chattering
excitedly about the World Cup matches. The old man hacked off
his limbs with an enormous chopper.

 By the time it was Jatindranath Banerjee’s turn, he was taking five

hundred rupees from newspapers and a thousand from television
channels.
 ‘Her name was Ashapurna. In the jatra in which we were performing,
Shashti ki Shanti, she was the singer and I the villain. The hero was the
actor Satyapal Chakrabarti. Very handsome!

 Father had already begun to shine in villainous roles at the age of sixteen,
with his bulging eyes and protruding cheeks. The pinkish white hero and
the dark-skinned villain filled the stage. Father fell in love with Ashapurna.
Ashapurna fell in love with Satyapal. Whenever he could, Satyapal put
Father down; in those days Father dreamt constantly of becoming a
celebrated artist. Satyapal persuaded Ashapurna to live with him.
Heartbroken, Father left the drama company and went off to Bombay for
some time. After two years, another troupe in Kolkata invited him to play
the hero. And then, when he was returning from a performance, he met
Ashapurna again. She had become a prostitute.

 When we met again, she broke into tears and begged me to forgive her. I
was ready to accept her even then. But she would not let me. Even as I
watched, she went off with a cart driver for her daily bread. Mitra babu,
how could a young man of eighteen have borne this agony?’
 ‘When did you become a hangman, Grddha babu?’ ‘When I was
with the drama troupe, my father was assisted by one of my
brothers. He died of jaundice. Another brother, Nagbhushan
Mullick, had been dismissed from service by the British
government. That’s another story . . . I’ll tell you some other
time. Baba called me when he had no assistant. Those days,
children weren’t bold enough to disobey their parents. I went
with him, for the first time, to execute a death sentence. I cursed
my father and God when I set out. Those days, there would be
four or five hangings the same day. Remember, this was the year
1934–35.

 I cursed myself as I accompanied Father to the prison. He

ordered, Phani, do this, do that. I obeyed him. By then, the
condemned man was brought. “Tie his hands, Phani,” said Father. I
caught hold of the man’s hands and tied them up. When Father
went up to him to put the hood on his face, he suddenly turned
his head, looked at me and called, Phanibhushan! I was shocked.
Sanju babu, do you know who that was? None other than
Satyapal Chakrabarti!’
I, Chetna Mullick, daughter of Phanibhushan Grddha Mullick, hereby
agree that all rights towards transmitting and publishing interviews
with me for twenty-four days from today, until 24 June, on which date
the death sentence of Jatindranath Banerjee is to be executed as
announced by the Government of India, will be solely owned by CNC
Channel, a subsidiary of CNC Publishing House. During this time, I
agree not to speak with anyone other than the authorized
representatives of CNC Channel. A sum of Rs 5000 has been fixed as
remuneration, of which I have received Rs 1001 as advance.

Yours faithfully Signature

First witness: Phanibhushan Grddha Mullick
Second witness: Sanjeev Kumar Mitra
 'And so, for the first time in the world, a woman has been
officially appointed to thepost of hangman. Accepting all the
demands made by the state’s famous hangman
Phanibhushan Grddha Mullick, the government of Bengal has
appointed his daughter Chetna Grddha Mullick to the office
of the hangman. Chetna Grddha Mullick has received the
order, visited the IG of police and the superintendent of the
Alipore Correctional Home, and completed the first phase of
arrangements. You are watching Chetna and her father
leaving the jail. Chetna Grddha Mullick passed her Plus Two
exams with very high marks. Chetna, welcome to CNC.What
do you have to say about your new job? Do you feel scared
working as an executioner?'

 Sanjeev Kumar asked me that question without warning. ‘We

Grddha Mullicks don’t know what fear is,’
 'The DGP, the superintendent and the magistrate
stand. Once the condemned man is brought in, and
we make him wear a hood that covers his whole
head and tie his hands, the magistrate will drop a
red kerchief . . . that’s the sign . . . the lever must be
pulled then . . .'

 ‘All we do is carry out justice. Take, for example,

Jatindranath whom we will soon punish. Remember
the little girl he murdered. She was on her way to
the medical shop, to get medicines for her mother.
She must have cried and pleaded with him . . . but
he did not listen to her. In that moment, he was
terribly evil. It is the job of the government to find a
way to heal that.
 During the reign of the Sena kings, our ancestor Chitswarup
Mullick had been the hangman. The Sena kings had defeated
the last of the Pala kings, Madana Pala. Grandfather
Chitswarup was deputed to execute the defeated king.
While he was in power, Madana Pala had been like a lion. In
fetters, he was but a lowly fox. In the end, coming face to
face with death, the maharaja had whin like a mangy cur.

 One day, I woke up to the news that a woman had been

found dead near the railway tunnel. All of us ran there to
look at the corpse. People milled around the body. I

 ‘The body of the woman found near the railway tunnel still
unidentified— the police’ ‘The body found near the railway
tunnel is that of Vijayamallika, missing from Sonagachi—the
police’ ‘The killer of the woman found dead near the railway
tunnel will be nabbed soon—the police’.
 Two months later, another woman died. This time, on the
roadside, in Bhawanipore. The next morning, when Ma was
plaiting my hair on our doorstep, we heard the din of a
crowd in the distance. A large dog came running, pulling
behind it someone in a white vest and khaki trousers. Four
or five policemen chased after them, followed by a crowd.
Police, police!The dog ran past me towards the railway
tracks. I followed them, just one plait done. The train
passed by just then.The dog stood beside the tracks,
barking at it impatiently.I

 jumped on Sircar mama who sat with his back turned to us,
getting the soap ready to shave someone’s face. He fell and
rolled on the ground with a scream; the dog bit him and
dragged him on to the road. By then the policemen had
surrounded him. What happened before my eyes was
simply beyond a child’s belief. The police took him right
before us, hitting and shoving him. gled
 As he struggled to free himself from the policemen’s grip,
Sircar mama saw me. Chetu . . . Chotdi . . . Daughter, tell them
to set Mama free, he screamed. I felt terribly helpless, really,
really wanting, to run after the policemen and scratch their
hands bloody or bite them and free Sircar mama. But after
some time, the din of the crowd returned. It was Ramu da
As hebrought
• who struggled
hometo free
the himself
news hefrom
had the
heardpolicemen’s
from onegrip,
of theSircar mama
saw me. Chetu . . . Chotdi . . . Daughter, tell them to set Mama free, he
men who had gathered and were talking: ‘It was he who
screamed. I felt terribly helpless, really, really wanting, to run after the
murdered
policementhose women.
and scratch He’shands
their confessed
bloodyeverything!’
or bite them and free Sircar
mama. But after some time, the din of the crowd returned. It was Ramu
 The CNC brought
da who studio was on the
home Ashutosh
news heMukherjee
had heardRoad
frominone
a of the men who
compound fulland
had gathered of gulmohar
were trees.
 Back then there were hangings every day, so he could not
find the time to take care of it.
 After I got it, I went with my father to meet the IG. Then we
went to the Alipore Correctional Home and examined the
gallows and the rope. The rest we need to do a week before
the event.’

 The story that Dadu Purushottam Grddha Mullick had been

in love with Ma’s mother is one we’d heard since childhood.
All his life, he ached in the memory of his lost love, the
childhood sweetheart who was married off and sent to East
Bengal. Father used to boast that his father’s anguish
inspired Saratchandra Chatterjee to write Devdas. Her
name was the same as that of the heroine of Devdas —
Parbati.
  Sanjeev Kumar Mitra himself came. ‘The
management is very uneasy that the programme
was cancelled yesterday,’ Sanjeev Kumar
complained, taking over Thakuma’s cot as soon
as he arrived. I turned over on my mat away from
 Sanjeev Kumar Mitra himself
him andcame.looked‘The management
at Ramu is veryGrddha
da. ‘Yesterday uneasy
that the programme was cancelled yesterday,’ Sanjeev Kumar
babu’s programme on AVA had the highest
complained, taking over Thakuma’s cot as soon as he arrived. I
turned over on my mat ratings.
away from him and looked at Ramu da.

‘Yesterday Grddha babu’sI have never meton
programme a more
AVA haddishonest person
the highest than
ratings.
you. And have no desire to meet one either. I
 Ihave never met a more dishonest person than you. And have no
don’t like seeing you at all.’ Lying down again on
desire to meet one either. I don’t like seeing you at all.’ Lying down
again on the mat, I drewthethemat, I drew
torn theover
sheet tornmyself.
sheet over myself.
‘But your ‘Butis
smile
your
lovely, Chetna . . . even if itsmile
makesis fun
lovely, Chetna
of me . . .’ . . . even if it makes
fun of me . . .’
Kala Grddha Mullick whose career as a hangman lasted just a year.
He was the son of Manohar Dev Grddha Mullick and the brother
of Jnananatha Grddha Mullick. Kala was the first in our family to
give death by hanging a makeover: he turned it into a public
spectacle. He lived in a time when people were hung in public
places. He was Grandfather Manohar’s eldest son, thought by
everyone to be a naughty, lazy child. Grandfather Manohar
worked under his father, Dharmaraja Mullick, a famous hangman
whose career lasted eighty years. Kala saw the gallows for the first
time when he went along to assist his father after Dharmaraja
Mullick’s death. Six convicts were on death row that day.

The first—a robber who looted lonely travellers near the

Sunderbans and assaulted women as well—was to be executed at
the crack of dawn, at four o’clock. It was the month of June. When
he climbed on to the platform, Grandfather Manohar slipped on a
puddle from the previous day’s leg.
he sprang up eagerly to place the noose around the condemned
man’s neck and pulled the lever. The planks moved apart. The
man fell and died— all in the blink of an eye.

 ‘What kind of tension do you feel?’ ‘Many kinds. For example,

sadness when I think of that wasted life. The tension one feels
when you can’t hit back at a man who has harmed you even as
you become party to the death of someone who hasn’t. You
have to go through it to know what it feels like.’

 Today on the show we bring together two women. Along with

the country’s first hangwoman who is making final
preparations with just ten days to go for Jatindranath
Banerjee’s execution, we have another guest in our studio —
the wife of the condemned man, Kokila.’
 Ratnamalika, who was born in our family in the thirteenth
century, had a long birthmark that ran down her face from
forehead to chin.

 She was the cousin of Ranbir Mullick who was the first in our
family to take the title of Grddha. Ratnamalika was the
daughter of his father’s sister.

 When her father died, her mother, not yet seventeen, was
forced to commit sati.

 Ratnamalika was just a toddler then; she had a severe fit

seeing her mother being dragged to the funeral pyre.

 When she turned seven, the family tried to get her married.
She splattered cow dung water on the groom’s family,
snarling furiously that she was Chamundi, not Sati. And very
soon the dark scar made a thick layer on the right side of her
face, covering it entirely. It made her face ugly and terrifying
to look at.
 ‘Welcome again to Hangwoman’s Diary. As
Jatindranath Banerjee’s execution draws nearer, and
debates about the ethics of the death penalty continue
all over the world, we have with us in our studio today
along with Chetna Grddha Mullick, who has been
deputed to hang him, Protima Ghosh, mother of
Rameshchandra Ghosh, the last convict who was
hanged at the gallows . . .’

 His father Jitendra Ghosh, too, had received the death

sentence in a case involving the brutal murder of six
members of a family including an infant. The victims
had been hacked to death. But taking into account his
age and illhealth, the court had commuted the
sentence to life imprisonment.
 We sold all that we had to pay the moneylender back. But
he made false accounts . . . grabbed our land . . . when he
learned that he would lose all his land, my son went to the
usurer, and begged and begged and wept . . . then he
challenged the evil man. The usurer sent his goons to beat
up my son and his father. That made my son lose his
mind . . . he picked up the first thing he saw and marched to
the usurer’s house. His father and his friend Dipak ran after
him to stop him. But in the pushing and pulling there...'

 ‘Yes, a tender infant . . . just nine months old. But even

when he came back, my son was roaring, Kill them all, kill! I
had never seen him before like that. He was insane then.
Otherwise he wouldn’t even harm a fly. All of them made
him insane. They made him awfully cruel . . . but in the
end,he alone was punished . . .’
 At the word famine images of Amlashole rushed back into my
mind. The adivasis there had had no food rations for many
months. A local trader had taken away all their ration cards.
And when news of the hunger deaths broke.

 ‘Do you like biryani? The yellow one with a white boiled egg on
top?’ He sighed and looked at me. ‘In 1988, it cost forty rupees.
When the waiter brought the bill, I didn’t have enough cash. He
slapped me hard. The manager hit me on the head. Shouted
that I looked like a crook; scolded waiter for having taken my
order.

 8 days more

 There was Pingalakeshini in the thirteenth century. Her real

name was Tripurasundari. She changed her name when she
took up this profession.
 She was married off at the age of seven, according to
the prevailing custom. Her husband was a rich
nobleman.

 Once, when she was travelling with her husband in a

palanquin on her way back from worshipping at a Kali
shrine, Tughral Tughan Khan heard her talking and
laughing with her husband in her alluring way.

 He stopped the palanquin and pulled them out, and was

smitten by her glowing beauty.

 Her husband surrendered her to the Khan, hoping to

save his own life.

 When Tughan Khan, old enough to be her father, lifted

her up and threw her face down upon his horse, her veil
came undone; through the gap, she shot a furious
glance at the husband who had abandoned her thus.
 He had taken the bag of money the Khan had thrown at him
and was trying to flee with his life.

 She was six months pregnant then. But Tughan Khan showed
her no mercy.

 Whenever she was summoned to his rooms, the guards would

have to carry out her torn and ravaged body afterwards. In the
meantime he also made her convert; it enraged Tughan Khan
to have the vermillion Tripurasundari gave birth before term.

 For ten years, Tughan Khan was the ruler of Bengal.

 In those ten years, she gave birth nine times; all nine infants
were dispatched with their own umbilical cords.
 It was then that Narasimha Dev, the king of Odisha, attacked
Bengal. Though Tughan Khan captured one of Narasimha Dev’s
fortresses, the Odisha army hit back when the Khan’s forces
were celebrating their victory.

 The Khan had to retreat. The Odisha army pursued him right
up to Lakhnavati, the capital of Bengal in those days. They laid
siege to the city and soon captured it.

 The city’s Muslims were massacred. Tripurasundari fell into the

hands of the Odisha army. They made her wear a sari, marked
her forehead once more with vermillion, and shut her up in
Narasimha Dev’s tent.

 Tughan Khan sought help from the Delhi Sultan. The Odisha
army withdrew in the face of the forces from Delhi, but Tughan
Khan had lost his eminence.
 He had to return to Delhi. Seizing her chance, Tripurasundari,
who had escaped from Narasimha Dev’s tent, sought refuge in
a Buddha vihara.

 She shaved her head and became a female mendicant.

Meanwhile, many governors ruled Bengal.

 In 1272, when the governor Amin Khan destroyed the vihara

( Monastery) were she lived, Tripurasundari was fifty. But her
youth was undiminished; she was once again captured by the
soldiers and turned into a kept woman.

 When Tughan Khan attacked Bengal again, defeated Amin Khan

and retook his position as governor, his soldiers found
Tripurasundari in the enemies’ tents. Despite her shaved head
and ochre robes(Kaavi), Tughan Khan recognized her.
 She had to change her faith again.

 Tughan Khan ruled Bengal for the next nine years, and during
this time, Tripurasundari continued to be his concubine.

 Then, steadily growing uneasy with Tughan’s rise, Balban, the

ruler of Delhi, led a campaign against him. Tughan Khan won
in the first two encounters.

 During the third assault, Tripurasundari escaped from the

royal quarters and sought refuge in a gypsy tent. As his
soldiers dragged her out of the tent, Balban happened to see
her.

 Tripurasundari promised to help him defeat Tughan Khan; in

return, she asked for Khan’s body. When Tughan Khan was
finally defeated, he was thrown at her feet, bound hand and
foot. What more do you want, asked Balban.
Radhararaman Mullick was to hang the infamous killer Vinod Gaurav, a
refugee from Bangladesh who had strangled to death nearly a hundred
children with his handkerchief. His pleasure was to travel all over
Bengal, lure children with sweets, and then murder them. When he
had slain his hundredth victim, he went to a police station and
confessed that he had killed a hundred children and bodies with acid.
 Weeks after death, our picture—the picture of Gautam,
Champa, Aparna, Amalendu and me running away,
laughing—appeared in the English magazine Sunday.
 Niharika, was married and sent off to Bardhaman but
returned, only to commit suicide.When she was fourteen,
a young man who had come to Nimtala Ghat to perform
his father’s last rites fell in love with her.
 statue of Durga
 Marriage proposals began to arrive very soon. The dowry
negotiations stretched endlessly; her head bowed down
more and more each time. In the end, a young man from
a farming family in Bardhaman, Suryaprakash Dharman,
agreed to reduce the dowry somewhat.
 We were to pay a dowry of five thousand rupees and five
sovereigns of gold. Father had to struggle to get it
together.
‘Tell me first why you killed Kakima.’ He didn’t expect
that. ‘You don't need to know that!’ ‘If I don't need to
know that, then don’t harbour hopes about the money
I earned!’ My voice became louder. Father squirmed as
if he had been hit and stood glaring at me. ‘What did
you say, you arrogant—’ ‘I’ll give you the money if you
tell me why you killed her.’

‘I saw her at Kalighat . . . in a place where she shouldn’t

be seen . . .’ I stood still, overwhelmed. ‘Do you think I
will suffer that?’ The room was filled with quiet. ‘She
went there to make money to take Sudev for treatment
to Madras,’ said Ma, without the slightest hint of
bewilderment, untying her hair and tying it up again.
‘Treatment here would have cost three lakhs. There, it’d
cost only one and a half. That’s why she . . .’ Ma’s voice
choked.
‘What? What happened?’ someone asked, shouting.
Someone else replied: ‘Hanging stayed!’

' All preparations for the hanging at dawn tomorrow had

been completed. The chief hangman Phanibhushan
Grddha Mullick and his daughter Chetna Grddha Mullick
had visited Alipore Jail and conducted the test hanging
successfully. The Supreme Court has issued the stay
order upon an appeal by Jatindranath Banerjee’s wife
Kokila Banerjee, which states that the sentence should
not be carried out since the appeal to the President of
India, filed after the Bengal governor rejected
Jatindranath’s mercy petition, is still pending.’
 SSKM Hospital

 ‘There, those are the phone booths. I’ll give you the
money. Call him, let him know what happened to Ramu.
This is a big news story, Chetu. The hangman’s son on his
deathbed the day the hanging was postponed—who
wouldn’t want to see that news on TV after hearing such
a headline?’

 'Hello . . . Sanju babu? This is me . . . Phanibhushan

Grddha Mullick . . . Oh, were you asleep, Babu? Sorry for
troubling you. My son Ramdev became very ill last
night . . . fell off his cot . . . We brought him to the
hospital immediately. Just think, Babu, the day the
hanging got postponed, the hangman’s son was taken
grievously ill. Bhagawan! Will anyone believe this? His
skull was shattered when it hit the floor . . . been
bedridden for so long, his bones are all weak . . . that’s
what the doctors say. It’s time for him to go, Babu . . .
today or by tomorrow evening. '
Ramu da gasped three times. His eyeballs rolled
upwards. His body became motionless. The doctor
came in and checked his pulse. He then removed the
oxygen mask and the tubes, and left without a word.
Ramu da’s eyes made me feel afraid. My right hand
extended involuntarily. My palm felt his eyelashes;
they were so soft even then. His eyelids were like
flower petals. Death crawled inside my palm. His
eyelids closed like flower petals falling. Liberated from
the ventilator, Ramu da lay, eyes shut, an innocent
smile on his face. Ma ran in and threw herself on his
body, weeping.
 Six-year-old Amolika’s eyes had been gouged out. Her limbs
had been hacked off. Her neck had been pierced with an
iron rod. But since I had already seen her little body the
previous day, I was able to accompany it with a hardened
heart. Her mother, Amodita, had been my classmate in
primary school. She was married before she turned fifteen.

 She lost two infants; her husband, a worker in a cotton mill,

became asthmatic; her paralytic fatherin-law needed full-
time care.

 It was hard for me to even believe that it was the body of a

human being. The murderer was a neighbour, an eighteen-
yearold. He had promised to teach her a song. He had sung
the first few lines of ‘Twinkle, twinkle, little star’ for her but
before she could sing along, he clamped his hand over her
and dragged her into the bushes.
My heart beat faster. ‘He says his last wish is to marry his brother to
you.’ ‘He has no right to wish so,’ I retorted, disturbed. I went
reluctantly to Jatindranth’s cell. Jatindranath stretched his neck out
from behind the bars. ‘Chetu di, meet my younger brother, Kartik.
Please won’t you marry him?’
The young man and I looked at each other. He was about thirty or so;
want and sorrow had marred his face. I recalled seeing him with
Kokila Banerjee in the studio. He looked far more exhausted now.
 • noose tightened on his neck and he screamed
noose tightened on Sanjeev Kumar Mitra 's neck and
‘Amme!’
he screamed Ma, .mati,
‘Amme!’ His legsmanush, I answered.
danced in the air. Like His legs
danced
a plastic in the
bag filled air. Like
with water beingapressed
plastichard,
baghisfilled with
water
life force triedbeing
hard topressed hard,different
escape through his life force tried hard
routes.
to His eyes rolled
escape like balls.
through His tongueroutes.
different stuck out.His eyes rolled
His hands stuck closer to the body and scratched his
thighslike balls.agony.
in sheer His Itongue
beamed into stuck out. His hands stuck
the camera,
pulledcloser
off myto the
mike andbody
threw and scratched
it down. Picking up his
my thighs in
sheer
old bag fromagony.
under theI table
beamed into itthe
and slinging camera, pulled off
on my
shoulder,
my mikeI walked
andout.threw it down. Picking up my old bag
from under the table and slinging it on my
shoulder, I walked out.
THANK YOU