Think of detective and Sherlock and maybe Poirot come into your mind! But having read most stories of sherlock and Poirot; I have a special bias to Byomkesh dada! Of course it is because his stories are relatable for an Indian since they occur in the by lanes of India!
Unlike Sherlock or Poirot; Byomkesh was not quirky and was not exceptional! He was like the Batman of Superheroes! Mere mortal in every sense which made him more closer to the audience and readers!
One of the best stories (there are many!) is in which he meets a person in a function who happens to be a police official (If my memory serves right but that is not important!); the officer then proceeds to tell a surprising story in which they could not find the suspect who had apparently disappeared! The twist was that with a twinkle in his eye Byomkesh tells the official that “I know who is the culprit!” The official is taken aback when he and we the audience realise that it was the official who was the culprit all along who either overestimated his own intelligence or underestimated Byomkesh! In hindi the story is called Anjaan Khooni!
Then again Byomkesh is a mortal in every sense!
In fact, like every other mortal Byomkesh gets old, gets married and has a kid! He even gets a small plot of land in Kolkata and makes a small house there like a middle class Indian!
Of course I never liked the fact that he smoked! But his love for tea was tolerable! Which again makes him a mortal!
Byomkesh never like the name detective or investigator but he called himself the seeker of truth! The original novels were written in Bengali though you can get the translated ones! Or you can watch the famous DD serial starring Rajat as Byomkesh!
So when Sharadindu Bandyopadhyay created his Satyanveshi or the seeker of truth Byomkesh Bakshi, he never thought that the character will become so famous!
In fact just like return of Sherlock Holmes after Reichenbach Falls, after a hiatus of four years he started writing Byomkesh stories again! His last story of Byomkesh was unfortunately not complete.
In an interesting twist he had predicted that Satyabati (Byomkesh’s wife) would never own a car! In the last story she was waiting for a taxi and finally Byomkesh compromised and thought of getting a second hand car! The story was not completed since Sharadindu passed away suddenly without writing the end which is the best part of his stories! Satyabati though never got that car just like how Sharadindu predicted!
In the crowd of Sherlock and Poirot, do not forget Byomkesh! Like we do remember Sunita but let us not forget Butch Wilmore also! Here’s to Butch! Welcome home!
SHubh Ratri!
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