Author Anita Nair on her latest book ‘Hot Stage’ and the craft of writing

Author Anita Nair’s latest book in the Inspector Gowda series, Hot Stage, is a fast-paced crime thriller like the earlier two books in the series, Chain of Custody and Cut Like Wound.

However, in Hot Stage, the Inspector is now ACP, a bit mellowed, trying to rein in both impatience and anger, as he sets about solving another crime.

Still set in 2012 Bengaluru, Hot Stage follows the death of Professor Mudgood, a rationalist and opposer of right-wing forces, which ACP Borei Gowda believes is a homicide that is also politically motivated. The novel is a fast-paced narrative in the urban underbelly of crime where Gowda and his band of trusted colleagues, Ratna, Santosh, Gajendra, and Byrappa must travel deep into the abyss of vice and filth of human behaviour to get to the truth.

The Gowda noir series follows the career (and life) of Bengaluru cop, Borei Gowda as he follows the murky bylanes of crime in the city, navigates department politics and familial situations, written in an edge-of-the-seat thriller style.

Nair points out that it was natural for Gowda’s character to evolve with the three books.

“If I were to keep him precisely where he started off, as an observer of human behaviour, I don’t think it would be right—because people change, events in their lives change, and they also grow older,” she tells YS Life.

In the first book, Gowda was just turning 50, and Nair believes men start changing at that age, becoming a little slower and quieter, while women become feistier. “This makes him look at everything in a slightly different way than he used to.”      

When Gowda’s lover and friend Urmila exits at the end of the book, there seems to be an air of finality hanging over the series. But Nair says that the Inspector Gowda series is far from over.

“The relationship had to end because it was not going anywhere. How long can Urmila be in a relationship where Gowda is so obviously obsessed with his work, and where she is not a priority. I think Urmila recognises this at some point. This is not the final book because the last line makes sure that he is back, in the thick of action and back in business,” Nair adds.

Nair, who has been living in Bengaluru for over 30 years now, has also made the city the backdrop of the series, while her other works of literary fiction such as Mistress, Ladies Coupe, Eating Wasps, The Better Man travel through Kerala and Tamil Nadu.

“I have always written about the places I know intimately, whether it is a particular region in Kerala or Tamil Nadu. If I were to write about Karnataka, the only place I can write about with some authority is Bengaluru, especially the parts where I have lived in, know, and understand well. It has helped me see how time has changed the fabric of the city and I think in many ways, Gowda is capturing that transformation,” she says.

Nair believes that while writing the Gowda series, the crime takes precedence over everything else, with a problem-solution graph. Here, the character determines the pace of the trajectory of the novel, and the writing becomes fast-paced.

From literary fiction to crime—Nair’s work continues to traverse many worlds. But the author is also well-known as a writer of children’s books like The Puffin Book of Magical Indian Myths, Living Next Door to Alise, Muezz and Baby Jaan: Stories from the Quran, Bipathu and a Very Big Dream, and others.

She says with literary fiction and crime novels, she doesn’t shy away from showing human emotion and behaviour, which translates into a lot of darkness.

“When you are not writing about no-so pleasant things, there is a kind of darkness that seeps into me. I bring back the light into my soul with children’s books,” she says.

Nair believes writing is an art form as much as it is a craft that enhances artistic expression. She says a lot of Indian writing is badly written, where little effort is put into the craft.

“I think writers should learn to enjoy the process of piecing out the essence of a thought, rather than stating it through rambling paragraphs and then hoping the reader will be able to find something in it,” she says.

She also runs Anita’s Attic, a comprehensive writing and mentorship programme that has completed 11 seasons.

“With Anita’s Attic, we have been able to nurture a set of writers who have their basics in place. I want to help writers create meaningful work—whether it’s chick lit, crime or historic fiction,” she says.

Nair also lists her top influences when it comes to writing. It begins with the idea and goes onto the place and moves onto the landscape and then the characters that are influenced by the observations she’s made over the years of societal behaviour and societal mores.

“Increasingly, it is becoming very important to me, if I'm writing literary fiction, crime or children’s fiction to weave in a social commentary. Contemporary fiction is going to probably be the only uncorrupted way of capturing what is happening in the world we live in,” Nair says, as she signs off.