Writing crime stories is fun because they have variety

It is but natural for anybody to ask why I chose to write crime stories – that too in Bengali. One reason was an old book that I had found and purchased from an old book stall in College Street – it was a copy of a thesis submitted by a high ranking police officer on crimes in Kolkata. It was full of facts and figures of crimes in Kolkata from the times of the birth of Kolkata. How that particular copy came to be among the old books on College Street is and always remain a huge mystery but I bought it.
Moreover, from my schooldays I have been brought up on stories of William (of Richmal Crompton), Five Find Outers (of Enid Blyton), the Hardy Boys (of Franklin Dixon), Billy Bunter (of Frank Richards) etcetera.
Then, in my college days, I was always an avid reader of crime story and novels. Our library in St Xavier’s College had wonderful stock of books by authors like Agatha Christie, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and Ellery Queen. And – I had got addicted to books of Earl Stanley Gardner, James Hadley Chase, Ian Fleming, Nick Cater and the likes. The paperback came cheap in the days when $1 was equal to Rs 5 only.
To add to my repertoire were English movies that had themes of crimes – it was the era of James Bond and his clones. The first James Bond movie was Dr No released in 1962.
All these inputs egged me on to put pen to paper and I began to try my hand at writing crime related stories in Bengali. In order to ensure that no one got a whiff of what I was up to, I gave myself a new name, a pseudonym. (to be continued…)

Another interesting blog - Violence and atrocities

Another interesting blog - Citizen Journalist