Indian Readers discussion

Am a huge Sherlock Holmes fan and last year i enjoyed a detective-series by foreign author who was more Indian than us Indians in writing about India and Indians. Decided to try Satyajit Ray's Feluda (on the 6th story already) to see if he can make up for Vish Puri and so far am loving it.
Also, am posting a link to the best book in the series which is a 'must-read' and is a v.good mystery anyways u evaluate it.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7...

have complete Feluda vol 1 &2, yet to read.
Vish Puri too is new to me.

Iv been lugging around vish puri on my cart since ages... time to buy it now!

While at it, i would also like to suggest The Menagerie and Other Byomkesh Bakshi Mysteries by Sharadhindhu Bandyopadhyay. Some of us might be familiar with th Rajit Kapoor series

If u loved Feluda, u r gonna love Vish Puri.
Personally as a 'matri-bhakt' (mummy's boy), loved the character of Puri's 'Mummyji' who does some sleuthing of her own. Can say that i discovered comic/cozy whodunnits thru this series.

I will look for a Byomkesh omnibus in d library soon. Still feel more Bengali fiction needs to be translated...

Achha :)
Thats great then!

Thats the extent of my knowledge about Indian detective stories...

Recently there has been a resurgence of Byomkesh Bakshi on bangla cinema as well as television. Managed to watch most of them. But yet to read the stories.

I loved the first two books of Vish Puri series. I have got first volume of feluda stories but have to read it yet. Arvind bhai, if you are willing to read hindi then check out Surendra Mohan Pathak. His books fall into various categories depending on the series for eg:
His Vimal series is a thriller in which the protagonist enters the world of crime because he's framed by his wife and her lover. His initial novels were based in various parts of india but as the arc progressed most of his novels were set up in Mumbai.
His jeet singh series novels are also thriller. Jeet Singh is similar to Vimal in many aspects. He is a vault buster. His novels are based mostly in mumbai and goa.
Then there is sunil series which is about Sunil Kumar Chakraborty. He is an investigative journalist working for a newspaper called Blast. He lives in a fictional city called Rajnagar. These are mostly who dun its.
Then there is Sudheer Kohli series. He is PI working in delhi and calls himself delhi ka number one harami (Delhi's number one bastard).The novels featuring him are mostly whodunits.
There are many other authors writing in this genre but they are not as good as pathak especially his grasp over the various forms of hindi language. His vimal and jeet singh series have mumbaiya and goan hindi while suneel and sudheer series have a flavor of delhi and punjabi.

Lets see. I no longer read Sheldon-type thrillers, but will try out him out some day...

A Feluda thread?! Wow! A childhood must for everyone who reads Bengali :) But Satyajit Ray, perhaps, always wrote them with the films in mind. So don't miss out on the movie adaptations either--especially, Sonar Kella and Joy Baba Felunath, the ones directed by Ray himself.
Byomkesh is great to read :) though much, I believe, would be lost in translation.

Had forgotten about this thread. Now that I am about to complete my first book on Vish Puri The Case of the Deadly Butter Chicken and vols 1 and 2 of Feluda are residing in my bookshelves for the past 2 years or so, I feel eligible to make comments on this thread.
Nothing much to say as of now.
Vish Puri seems to be a sweet old gentleman fond of his belly and with quite a pleasing way of slang-talk.
And am amused at his sidekicks - Tubelight, Handbreak and what not.

Feluda of course is a childhood favorite. also liked the one vish puri novel i read.
recently read anita nair's cut like wound. it was quite a good detective story/police pricedural.

thanks for the info. I will be on the lookout for "cut like a wound"

Syl. A.k.a Topo di biblioteca wrote: "Had forgotten about this thread. Now that I am about to complete my first book on Vish Puri The Case of the Deadly Butter Chicken and vols 1 and 2 of Feluda are residing in my books..."
yeah, his side kicks are great. But what i like most in his books is the parallel investigations that Mummyji seems to conduct. There was one in both the first and second book of the series. I hope there is one in this too.

Indrani wrote: "Feluda of course is a childhood favorite. also liked the one vish puri novel i read.
recently read anita nair's cut like wound. it was quite a good detective story/police pricedural."
Looks interesting. I have added it to my TBR. Thanks for the Info.

विकास wrote: "Syl. A.k.a Topo di biblioteca wrote: "Had forgotten about this thread. Now that I am about to complete my first book on Vish Puri The Case of the Deadly Butter Chicken and vols 1 an..."

Yes, there is. :)
And Vish is not too happy :P

I'm diverging from the topic but has anyone here read works of Sharath Komarraju. He too writes mysteries. I have few books by him as i was intrigued by the synopsis but have to read him yet.

विकास wrote: "I'm diverging from the topic but has anyone here read works of Sharath Komarraju. He too writes mysteries. I have few books by him as i was intrigued by the synopsis but have to read him yet."

Haven't yet

Are the Feluda books vol.1 & 2 available in Hindi?

As the original language of those stories is Bengali, I am getting a feeling that it would be better to read Hindi translation than the English one.

Please advice.

I doubt. They have been translated into English only recently.
BTW, I keep taking a look at Penguin's 'Classic' series to see what new has come up (translations). Discovered Sunil Gangopadhyay and Feluda that way. Penguin for me is a mark of quality.

No idea, Ankit. Best way to know is go to Wikipedia and see.

I asked the same question to Penguin via e-mail and twitter. Got no reply.
I will keep looking.

Ankit wrote: "Are the Feluda books vol.1 & 2 available in Hindi?

As the original language of those stories is Bengali, I am getting a feeling that it would be better to read Hindi translation than the English o..."
There are few stories that have been translated not the whole collection. I have got two of these but haven't read yet, so can't say anything about the quality of translation.
http://www.amazon.in/Maut-ka-Ghar-Sat...
http://www.amazon.in/Sone-Ka-Qula-Sat...
http://www.amazon.in/Raja-ki-Anghooti...

I agree reading him in hindi would be great. But for now i have found only these three. I wanted to read byomkesh in hindi but then couldn't find any so brought the English translations.

@Vikas, which Byomkesh books do u have ?

Arvind wrote: "@Vikas, which Byomkesh books do u have ?"

Picture Imperfect and Other Byomkesh Bakshi Mysteries
Menagerie and other Byomkesh Bakshi Mystery
By the way i have also brought byomkesh samgra in bengali in hope that someday i'll learn bengali and will enjoy it then. -

Vikas - "By the way i have also brought byomkesh samgra in bengali in hope that someday i'll learn bengali and will enjoy it then."
U will enjoy a lot more and greater books than Byomkesh if u learn Bengali :)

Arvind wrote: "Vikas - "By the way i have also brought byomkesh samgra in bengali in hope that someday i'll learn bengali and will enjoy it then."
U will enjoy a lot more and greater books than Byomkesh if u lear..."
Yeah, but this i year i'm focusing on Marathi. It has the same script and is similar in structure to hindi. And it has very rich literature.I hope i learn it by the end of this year. Bengali is next on the list.

विकास wrote: "Ankit wrote: "Are the Feluda books vol.1 & 2 available in Hindi?

As the original language of those stories is Bengali, I am getting a feeling that it would be better to read Hindi translation than..."

Thanks for the links. I will look it up.
By the way, from where are you learning Marathi and Bengali?

Arvind wrote: "Vikas - "By the way i have also brought byomkesh samgra in bengali in hope that someday i'll learn bengali and will enjoy it then."
U will enjoy a lot more and greater books than Byomkesh if u lear..."

You bought the bengali version???! O.o

Ankit wrote: "विकास wrote: "Ankit wrote: "Are the Feluda books vol.1 & 2 available in Hindi?

As the original language of those stories is Bengali, I am getting a feeling that it would be better to read Hindi tr..."
From this blog:
http://learn-marathi-from-hindi-kaush...
It's pretty cool. Bengali i'll search once i finish learning Marathi. Bengali has a different script but i have heard people speaking it and i find i can understand what's being said(at least some portions ). That's why i chose bengali.

OMG ...

I am beyond impressed that Vikas is learning languages to read books in original language. That's true dedication.

Syl. A.k.a Topo di biblioteca wrote: "विकास wrote: "Syl. A.k.a Topo di biblioteca wrote: "Had forgotten about this thread. Now that I am about to complete my first book on Vish Puri The Case of the Deadly Butter Chicken..."
Her investigations often drive him crazy and that's fun to read. I often find myself more interested in investigations conducted by Mummyji rather than that of vish puri. :-p ;-)

Vikas Bhai! Big salute to you!
Feels great to see someone attempting to learn different Indian languages for books!
And here I am still trying to learn *proper* Hindi only :(

@Vikas, yes, mummyjee is cute.. :)

My salute too... I find it difficult to learn new languages, though the female brain is supposed to be more adept at it.

Have you guys read Ibn e Safi yet? I have heard that he is good. Would love a recommendation on which book to start with.

Indrani wrote: "Have you guys read Ibn e Safi yet? I have heard that he is good. Would love a recommendation on which book to start with."
I have read some novels of Imran series and some novels of Jasoosi duniya series. I found Jasoosi duniya series to be better. Imran is very irritating protagonist.

Syl. A.k.a Topo di biblioteca wrote: "@Vikas, yes, mummyjee is cute.. :)

My salute too... I find it difficult to learn new languages, though the female brain is supposed to be more adept at it."
Yeah, learning new language is difficult that's why i chose language which are similar in structure to hindi. I dread going towards Dravidian languages. That would be Goliathan task to undertake. Although reading U R Ananthamurty's Bhava and Anthology of Tamil Pulp fiction made me wish i could read them in original languages.

Gorab wrote: "Vikas Bhai! Big salute to you!
Feels great to see someone attempting to learn different Indian languages for books!
And here I am still trying to learn *proper* Hindi only :("
Thanks Gorab bhai

विकास wrote: "Indrani wrote: "Have you guys read Ibn e Safi yet? I have heard that he is good. Would love a recommendation on which book to start with."
I have read some novels of Imran series and some novels of..."

Thanks Vikas. Do we need to read Jasoosi duniya in sequence or picking up any would be fine?

Indrani wrote: "विकास wrote: "Indrani wrote: "Have you guys read Ibn e Safi yet? I have heard that he is good. Would love a recommendation on which book to start with."
I have read some novels of Imran series and ..."
They are basically mysteries so anyone will do.

cool

I'm a big fan of the legend Ibn e Safi and his Jasoosi Duniya series. The books are available in translated English courtesy Blaft Publications, but I believe that the transliterations of the books from the house of Harper Hindi are much more enriching for the sheer exquisiteness of the original dialogue. Now, with regards to the order of reading, I'd suggest that you start with "Diler Mujrim" first and pick up the rest at random.

The Vish Puri series is far too kitschy. I didn't like it. It was like a bad, latter-day Merchant-Ivory film with accentuated accents and all that.

I am a Bengali, but I learnt the English language much before I picked up the Baangla script. So, my first encounter with Satyajit Ray's Feluda series was through a Penguin translation of four selected novellas by Chitrita Banerjee in the earlier nineties. Later, the double-volume omnibus came out at the turn of the millennium with the translations of Gopa Majumdar covering the entire canon. There are a few unputdownable stories here, considering the genre, but there are a few repetitive plot elements as well: seances, magic, revenge, shikar, etc.

Kunal wrote: "I'm a big fan of the legend Ibn e Safi and his Jasoosi Duniya series. The books are available in translated English courtesy Blaft Publications, but I believe that the transliterations of the books..."


Agree completely on Feluda. I have grown up with Feluda stories and have read the original Bengali stories through my teenage years.

Thanks for the recommendation on Ibn e Safi. Will look this book up and start.