Every so often, a new book feels familiar. The words bring back scenes from your childhood. The characters seem to be people you have seen or met - neighbours, relatives. A time machine in print. Suparna Chatterjee has managed to do that for me with her book "The All Bengal Crime Detectives". Set in a neighbourhood in South Kolkata where I grew up, all the characters seem so familiar. I managed to read through the book on Apple Books over a two week period - a welcome break from reading PowerPoints and annual reports of UK banks. I have shamefully lost my ability to read. There are so many distractions - Instagram reels, YouTube videos, WhatsApp notifications, emails, etc. The perils of reading in a world of notification nuisance. And to top it off, I was attempting to read on my phone - the hotbed of distractions. But I am glad I could finish it.
The cover on the edition I stumbled upon on Amazon UK (above) proclaimed "Combo of Blyton, Christie and Ray" - that piqued my interest. And the blurb on Amazon UK sealed the deal: "In a middle class Calcutta neighborhood, the lives of four recently retired men take an unexpected turn when they stumble upon a crime. Will the unlikely ‘detectives’ be able to catch the criminal? Or will they unravel something even more sinister? The Protagonists grab this exciting opportunity to rise above their mundane existence. They defy the ordinary, stretch their boundaries and in the process discover something precious. Meanwhile, a lot is going on in the Paara (neighborhood) a rather difficult match making process for a ‘whitish complexioned’ daughter, rivalry between two neighboring clubs over Durga Pujo, squabbles between the ‘ outdated’ seniors and the younger members of the local club, attempts at an impossible romance by a road side Romeo."
The four elderly gentlemen who meet in the morning at the park are the protagonists - three of them very middle class and the other a retired judge (so upper middle class) and the author has deftly delved in their personal lives (daily trips to the local bazaar, trying to find a match for their daughters, feeling slighted by the neighbourhood young men). And then there is the backdrop of the Pujo season. I had no idea when I picked up the book that it was set around our annual autumnal celebrations. The planning of the pujos, the inter-para rivalry, the chanda collection and the bhashaan dance - all wonderfully described. I highly recommend it to all of you pining for the South Kolkata at the turn of the millennium.
PS: I suspect the title ABCD is a nod to Satyajit Ray's Feluda who was christened ABCD by Jatayu - Asia's Best Crime Detective!
The Hindu newspaper described the book as, “Suparna has crafted endearing stories of individual characters around the central story. Four recently retired men turn detectives when a robbery, involving them, occurs in their otherwise peaceful and friendly neighbourhood. While the four try to solve the case, other issues crop up: finding a perfect match for a dusky-complexioned girl and rivalry over organising Durga Puja are some of them.”
“I was sure I didn't want to write a stereotypical detective novel. I chose retired, middle class men as my main characters and not a smart, savvy detective.” A slight pause later, Suparna breaks into smiles. “The unlikeliest detective I could think of was my father. He has an eccentric sense of humour. His group of friends — incidentally all of them are avid bridge players — are equally interesting. I knew that by basing my characters on them, it would open up comic possibilities of epic proportions.”
