The darkness of the underworld, the undertow to poet-author Surendran’s Hadal

Bengaluru: Hadal, written by journalist and poet-turned-author C.P. Surendranath, is not what one would expect from a former newshound. Although based on a real life incident, Hadal, meaning ‘underworld’, is a take on life itself, our achievements, our shortcomings and the complexity of our relationships.

A darkly comic take on Indian society, told from the point of view of a corrupt, perverse policeman, the book is an irreverent, no-holds-barred take on human nature and everything that drives us. “People think of me as very offensive,” he says with a laugh. “I’m actually very shy! But when I write, I do so like a fairly terrorised madman!”

Hadal is a very intriguing title. Tell us about it.

Hadal comes from the Greek word Hades, meaning underworld. It also refers to a certain marine region, 23,000 ft deep, where the density and pressure and undercurrents are very strong. Only predators can survive. It refers to people's relationships… there are so many currents in the way we relate to each other.

The book has been derived from a real life incident, the story of Mariam Rasheeda...

Mariam was a foreigner who overstayed her visa and approached a policeman to have it renewed. Being a typical Indian man, he asked her for sexual favours, which she refused. He tapped her phone and realised that she was having an affair with an ISRO scientist. He decided that she was a spy, trying to smuggle cryogenic rocket technology. The entire media, the politicians and the judiciary bought into this myth-making and she spent five years in jail. I met her, as a reporter, when she was declared innocent and I was one of the few people who realised she had been framed. In my book, though, I call her Miriam.

Even so, Hadal doesn't attempt to make a cross-examination of the case, it’s much more than that...

It's highly fictionalised, yes, you're not getting a documentary of the truth. My book is about the phantom land that people develop and the way others choose to inhabit it.

You have chosen to write from the point of view of the corrupt cop, not the victim. Why?

Yes, Honey Kumar is a cop who has been transferred from Delhi to Kerala. I think that the darkness and the comedy and the repressed sexuality contained in him represent Indian society. It made for a lot more theatre and drama.

It's easy to take a moral stand, how did you stay above that?

I’m not a very judgmental person myself. I tend to understand that people are people, including me. We all do stupid things and embarrass ourselves, but we have to move past them. There is a certain extenuating background circumstance to Honey Kumar that seeks to explain his many weaknesses – the defining characteristics of so-called Indian society.

How did publishers respond to this point of view?

I actually had a lot of trouble getting the book published! So far, though, the response has been good, critics have been kind. We live in a very peculiar time, we tend to believe that political correctness should take precedence over everything else. A woman writer would be more empowered, but as an idiot male (laughs), it's hard to say incorrect things and get away with them!

(Hadal is being launched at 6.30 pm today, at the Alliance Francaise in Vasanthnagar)