Gangtokey Gondogol (Trouble in Gangtok) is a novella
by Satyajit Ray featuring the private detective Feluda. It first appeared
in a magazine Desh in 1970 and then in book form in 1971 by Ananda Publishers. The English translation is by Gopa Majumdar,
Puffin books, in 2004.
Feluda is Prodosh Chandra Mitra,
the main character of the story, he is always accompanied by his cousin Topshe
or Tapesh Ranjan Mitra. The story starts on the 14th April, Feluda and Topshe are
flying to Bagdogra. They see a man on the next seat who is reading The
Statesman. Feluda asks Topshe to say where the man is from, and Topshe says a
man in a suit reading an English newspaper can be from anywhere. Feluda points
out the man’s gold ring, with Ma written on it in Bengali, showing that he is a
Bengali. At the airport cafeteria, the man meets them and introduces himself as
Sasadhar Bose, working for a chemical firm dealing in perfumes made from
aromatic plants. He had attended a nephew's wedding in Ghatshila and come to Sikkim to meet his partner. They reserve a jeep for
Gangtok. Drinking coca cola at Teesta Bazaar, they hear of an accident on
North Sikkim Highway,
a taxi fell into the valley after being hit by a huge boulder. The driver
escaped unhurt; the sole passenger died. Feluda and Topshe get down at Hotel
Snow View while Bose goes to dak bungalow.
Bose comes to Feluda's hotel
that evening to inform him that the man who fell down the cliff was his partner
Shivkumar Shelvankar, also the owner of the company. The tragedy occurred on the
11th. Bose decides to take a flight to Bombay next
day. Feluda and Topshe meet a Bengali gentleman
in the hotel, Nishikanto Sarkar. He had a statue of Tibetan God Yamantak, with nine
heads and 34 hands which he sold to Shelvankar for Rs 1000/-. Feluda and Topshe
go out for a walk. They meet Helmut
Ungar, a hippie in very colourful clothes, who tells them more about
Shelvankar. He had a son, whom he loved, but had run away from home. Shelvankar
kept Yamantak in his breast pocket, considering it a lucky charm. This
superstition came from the advice of Dr. Vaidya, who stayed with them in Dak
Bungalow. Vaidya had impressed Helmut as a very interesting person who could
bring down departed souls and predict the future. Shelvankar and Ungar had decided
to travel together to a gumpha on the way to Singhik. Helmut changed
his mind and left early to take some photographs. The accident occurred that
day. The statue was never found.
That evening, Feluda and Topshe take
a taxi to Namgyal Institute of Tibetology, to learn about the statue. Feluda
asks the taxi driver to come next morning to take him to the accident site. The
institute curator declares that Yamantak which Shelvankar had should cost above Rs 10,000/-. Another
person also came to inquire about the same statue, but he could not recall who
it was. Nishikanto tells Feluda that night that there is a lama dance next afternoon
at Rumtek.
Feluda and Topshe have this conversation that
night.
‘Just imagine,’ Feluda said, staring at the ceiling,
‘what do you suppose we’d have done if a criminal had nine heads? No one could
possibly sneak up to him and catch him from behind!’
‘And thirty-four arms? What about those?’
‘Yes, we’d have had
to use seventeen pairs of handcuffs to arrest him!’
Next morning, Nishikanto shows
Feluda a piece of paper left in his room during the night. The paper had a single
Tibetan word. Feluda and Topshe travel to the accident site, Feluda finds a
white button. He also finds that someone had levered a boulder by using a
strong rod, so the accident is a well-planned murder. Feluda telegrams Bose
asking him to return to Gangtok. He asks for a copy of a telegram received by
Shelvankar which says, “YOUR SON MAY BE IS A SICK MONSTER – Pritex.” Nishikanto
meanwhile finds out that the word on the note is in Tibetan and it means death.
Here is a description of the
morning.
I woke at 6.30 a.m. the next morning, to find that the rain had stopped
and there was not a single cloud in the sky. The sun shone brightly on the
world, and behind the range of mountains, now easily visible from our room, stood
Kanchenjunga. The view from here was different from that in Darjeeling, but it
was still unmistakably the same Kanchenjunga, standing apart from all the other
mountains—proud, majestic and beautiful.
Nishikanto, Helmut, Feluda and
Topshe go to Rumtek after lunch. There is a vivid description of the road, the
maize fields around and the monastery. While watching the colourful dances, Feluda
suddenly realises that SICK MONSTER means Sikkim Monastery. They hear someone
shout for help and rush. They find Nishikanto holding to a bush for dear life. Someone
has pushed him from behind. Back in Gangtok, Helmut invites them for tea at dak
bungalow. They meet a man in orange jacket and loose pants with a walking stick,
Helmut introduces him as Dr. Vaidya.
Vaidya invokes Shelvankar's
spirit, who says that he was actually murdered and Virendra is responsible for
it. Helmut tells that Virendra is Shelvankar's son. Vaidya tells Feluda that
tomorrow he will go to Pemayangtse Monastery. Next morning, Topshe finds a small note
near Feluda's ashtray. The note has the same Tibetan word, death. Feluda and
Topshe leave early and walk up to a secluded spot on the North Sikkim highway
to conduct an experiment. They drop boulders from above to see if one can hit a
moving car, but they cannot even hit a walking man. Feluda concludes that first
Shelvankar was hit by a rod and then the vehicle was pushed down the cliff. A
boulder was thrown later to get an accident like look. While Feluda was telling
this, a boulder came crashing down, Topshe pulled Feluda out of its way.
That evening, Helmut came to
Feluda's room to show two photographs taken during the crime. He had sent the
film to Darjeeling for printing and had got the copies this morning. A man
wearing red clothes is standing on top of the mountain and seeing the car fall.
This confirms the results of Feluda’s experiment. When Feluda asks if the man
is Virendra, Helmut says that it is impossible because he is Virendra. He says
that he did not like his father marrying again and ran away. His father
approached a detective agency to find him. Virendra came to Sikkim recently. He
suspects Vaidya to be the murderer. They decide to go to Pemayangtse to
apprehend Vaidya. They also rope in Nishikanto.
They start for Pemayangtse next
morning, taking the route via Namchi and Naya Bazar, as the shorter way via Kuching
is in a bad shape. There is no mention of Jorethang, because the town was not
there at that time. They stop to fill cold water in the jeep and hot coffee
inside them. They see the Rangeet river, with cleaner and greenish water. Bose
follows them in another jeep, finally they all get into the same vehicle. Bose’s
jeep follows with their luggage. They reach Pemayangtse in the early evening.
Vaidya had checked out yesterday, but left his stick.
They decide to have their lunch,
which they carried. Just before they can start eating, Feluda dramatically
announces that Bose killed Shelvankar to take over the ownership of the
company. Bose said he was attending his nephew's wedding on the day of the
murder. Feluda says that no wedding is held during the Bengali month Chaitra, and
they were together in the flight on the first of Baishakh, the very next
month. Feluda then says Bose and Vaidya are the same person and asks Bose where
is his Ma ring. When Bose tries to explain, Feluda points out that the mark of
the ring was there on Vaidya’s finger. Vaidya impressed Shelvankar by telling him
about his life, which Bose knew. Vaidya and Shelvankar went in the same jeep for
the gumpha. Bose hit Shelvankar with a rod to murder him. Then he and the
driver dropped the jeep down and then dropped a stone. Vaidya then came back
to Kolkata and, as
Sasadhar Bose, travelled in the same plane with Feluda. Vaidya tried to pin the
blame on Virendra as he did not know that Helmut was Virendra. When he noticed
Feluda was investigating, he tried to kill Feluda by rolling a boulder at him.
Bose rushes out and pushes Virendra on the ground. His driver starts the jeep.
Two bullets from Feluda’s revolver burst the rear tyres and the jeep stops.
Bose tries to run downhill but trips and gets pinned down by leeches. Feluda
finds the statue in his belongings. Bose and his driver are arrested by police
called in by Feluda’s driver. Feluda returns the statue to Nishikanto with the
advice not to sell it again.
The characters are very well
portrayed. The dual role of Sasadhar Bose and Dr Vaidya is terrific. While Bose
speaks proper Bengali, Vaidya speaks a mix of Bengali, Hindi and English. Also,
his way of speaking changes as soon as he starts the séance. The fact that they
are the same person, comes at the end, and totally surprises the reader. The
book is aimed at high school and early college going students, so the grotesque
details of the murder are totally absent.
The story is my first contact
with Sikkim and the descriptions of the city and the state are terrific. The
state was then an independent kingdom, ruled by the Chogyal. Indian Army trucks
and jeeps have been shown all along. The description of the Namgyal Institute
of Tibetology is very detailed. The rising mists and sunny mornings are
described vividly. Many things have since changed, jeeps have been replaced by
Sumos and are again changing to newer vehicles. New roads have been built; more
houses have come up. There are hotels all over. Even then, this story does give
a person a very good idea of life in and around Gangtok. A must read for all
lovers of Sikkim, and for those who love crime and detection stories.
(The author is Associate
Professor, Department of Physics, Sikkim University)
