The Kathmandu Killers

If you look beyond the utter chaos of New Market or Sir Stuart Hogg Market or Hogg Shaheber Market, as the Kolkattans know it, you will find history and also some rare and renowned shops withstanding the ravages of time.

There is Nahoum & Sons, established in 1902, by Nahoum Israel Mordecai, a Baghdadi Jew, 26 years after New Market came into existence. With its original mahogany cabinetry , marble counters and assortment of Rich Fruit Cake,  brownies, marzipan, macaroons and many other authentic mouthwatering savouries, Nahoum is truly historic.

It’s here that our homegrown Private Investigator, Pradosh C Mitter aka Feluda with his Watsonian cousin Tapesh or Topshe and writer friend, Lalmohan Ganguly, happen to meet Mr. Anil Kumar Batra, a Travel & Tour Agency PRO from Kathmandu. Mr. Batra wants to consult Feluda on a personal matter. Feluda asks him to come to his home the next day.

After a while, as the threesom are strolling through the crowded market, they see Mr. Batra again in a totally different outfit smoking a cigarette and walking past them as though they have never met before.

The very same evening, Feluda receives a call from one Mr. Anikendra Shom requesting an appointment to discuss something urgent. Feluda agrees to meet him the next day too.

The next day Batra, as prearranged, arrives at Feluda’s and narrates a strange story.  At the Grand Hotel, where Mr Batra is putting up, the Manager of the Curio Shop asks him to pay again for a Nepali Kukri earlier bought by him. The Manager says the currency, previously paid  by Mr. Batra, has turned out to be fake. This comes as a shock to the respectable Mr. Batra because he has neither purchased a Kukri before nor has anything to do with fake currency.

Feluda has an inkling who may have purchased it – Batra’s look alike, who they have seen last evening at New Market. Feluda advises Batra that he can at the best lodge a complaint with Kolkata Police as there’s nothing much that he can do about this case.

After Batra it’s Anikendra Shom’s turn. However, instead of  Shom showing up as per appointment Feluda receives a call from Kolkata Police informing him of a murder that has taken place in a hotel and the person with whom the victim has last spoken from his mobile is Feluda.

It does not take long for Feluda to figure that the murdered person is none other than Anikendra Shom. But the surprise does not end here. When Feluda arrives at the crime spot the Police reveals that the weapon with which Shom has been killed is a Nepali Kukri bearing the label of the Curio Shop in Grand Hotel – the one which Batra has paid for!

On investigation it further comes to light that Shom had come from Kathmandu to meet Feluda.  Batra also hails from Kathmandu. Two separate incidents with a common connection – Kathmandu! Though Shom was unable to keep the appointment his murder indicates that he solicited Feluda’s help on a matter of gravity. Feluda considers it his moral duty to investigate the case on his own and find out who the culprit is and what is the motive behind the murder.

So the threesom proceed to Kathmandu whereupon after checking in to the Hotel they meet an old Bengali Professor whose family has been residing in Kathmandu for the past 300 years. Intrigued they sit down to have a chat.

But unfortunately, the gentleman is still grieving the tragic and sudden death of his younger son, Himadri, who collapsed after being injected with an anti-Tetanus vaccine. His family may have taken his death as a freak accident but not Himadri’s close friend who is convinced that there is a bigger trans-border racket, peddling in fake drugs at play, behind Himadri’s death. He has therefore gone to Kolkata to investigate the matter further.

Does Feluda need a second guessing at who the friend is ? It is Anikendra Shom who has himself met with a fatal end. Now Feluda has not one but two mysterious deaths on hand to solve and uncover the mastermind behind the heinous crime of marketing spurious life saving medicines. But little does he know that  in peeling the layers off the traffickers operating across borders he has to once again accost his arch nemesis – the unscrupulous Marwari business tycoon – Maganlal Meghraj.

Based on Satyajit Ray’s gripping novel, Jawto Kando Kathmandute (All Trouble In Kathmandu), Srijit Mukherjee’s eponymous web series takes the viewers from Kolkata’s iconic New Market to Kathmandu’s famous Pashupati Nathji temple to its vibrant local markets to the verdant Tarai Region in between throwing in glimpses of the incredibly majestic peaks of Gauri Shankar and Mt. Everest.

I have read the book and seen its varied adaptations (movie/serial/web series) countless times. And every time it has seemed more thrilling and exciting. A true classic never stops to spellbind the reader!

Originally in Bengali, the book has also been translated in English by Gopa Majumdar and is available on Amazon.