Feludar Goendagiri

"Feludar Goendagiri (English title "Danger in Darjeeling")" is a short story written by Satyajit Ray featuring private detective Feluda. It was the very first among the total 35 complete stories/novels of feluda series. The story first appeared in 1965 in the children's magazine Sandesh. This story introduced Feluda and his cousin Tapesh alias Topshe . Topshe is the narrator of all the 35 stories/novels.

Plot summary

Feluda, Topshe and Topshe's father visit Darjeeling as tourists for a few days.

There, Feluda and Topshe meet Rajen Majumdar who was an established advocate based out of Kolkata, but after retirement had settled in Darjeeling. After retirement, Rajen-babu has developed an interest in antiques, and has built quite a formidable collection in a span of a few months.

Rajen-babu has been threatened by a letter posted to him, which mentions that he will be punished soon for misdeeds of his past. Rajen-babu panicks and agrees to have Feluda investigate the matter.

Feluda and Topshe also meet Tinkori Mukhopadhyay, who is staying at Rajen-babu's house as a paying guest for a few days and Abani Ghoshal , an antique property dealer. Tinkori-babu is a renowned writer of Bengali detective fiction, and he writes fiction under the name Guptochor (i.e. spy). Feluda mentions that Tinkori-babu is one of his favourite writers of detective stories in Bengali. Abani Ghoshal is interested in buying a bell, supposed to belong to the head-Lama of a nearby monastery, that is in Rajen-babu's possession.

Amongst other things, Feluda notices that the letter that was mailed to Rajen-babu is created out of words cut out from a newspaper. Tinkori Mukhopadhyay helps Feluda in his investigation, by suggesting that the cuttings are from Anandabazar Patrika, recognizing the unique font used in that newspaper.

Later , Feluda also meets Prabir Majumdar, Rajen Majumdar's estranged son. He was thrown out of the house by Rajen-babu for trying to steal money. Feluda also gives a visit to Dr. Phani Mitter, Rajen-babu's physician.

A second incident happens a following night. A man wearing a ghostly mask had entered Rajen-babu's room at night. Rajen-babu is extremely scared and agrees to Feluda and Topshe staying the night over at their place the next day.

Later, by a process of elimination, Feluda gets to the root of the problem. And his inference is confirmed by the smell of cheroots in one of the masks in Rajen-babu's collection of Antiques. The only person in the vicinity who smoked the specific brand and smell of cheroots is Tinkori-babu. Tinkori-babu, though, had left for Kolkata a day ago.

It is later confirmed that it is indeed Tinkori-babu who is the real culprit. Tinkori-babu has left a letter to Rajen-babu, referring to him as Raju, apparently Rajen-babu's nickname. Tinkori-babu was Rajen-babu's classmate in Bankura Missionary school, and was unlawfully, and seriously injured by Rajen-babu during a 100-yard race at the school's annual sports festival. Since Rajen-babu had left Bankura after the incident, Tinkori-babu never got a chance to avenge the incident then. After arriving at Darjeeling, Tinkori-babu could identify his old adversary from school from an old photograph, and decided to avenge that old incident by putting Rajen-babu under some discomfort. Thus, he sent the threatening letter, and also scared Rajen-babu at midnight in Rajen-babu's bedroom wearing the mask.

Commentary

In this story, Feluda's age is 27, and Topshe's is exactly half of Feluda's i.e. 13 and a half.

This is the first of two novels of Feluda, that are set in Darjeeling. The other is Darjeeling Jomjomaat.

Sandip Ray mentions Darjeeling as one of the favourite locations of his father, and thus Satyajit Ray's first movie made from original written screenplay, Kanchenjungha, as well as the first Feluda novel was based out of Darjeeling.

In the first few Feluda stories, Topshe is mentioned as Feluda's maternal cousin. Later, he is confirmed as Feluda's paternal cousin. Thus, in the first few stories (including Feludar Goendagiri), Topshe's full name is Tapesh Ranjan Bose. It changes to Tapesh Ranjan Mitter later.

Publication history

1. Sandesh, (serialised) December 1965, January-February 1966.
2. Ek Dojon Goppo, part of a collection of 12 stories, June 1970, Ananda Publishers
3. Paharey Feluda, anthology, January 1996, Ananda Publishers
4. Feluda Somogro, anthology, January 2005, Ananda Publishers, ISBN 81-7756-480-3

References

1. Khasra Khataye Feluda, by Sandip Ray. Introduction to Feluda Somogro 1, Ananda Publications, ISBN 81-7756-480-3
2. Feluda in Ek Dojon Goppo
3. Feluda in World of Ray
4. Feludar Goendagiri is the first published Feluda story