The Three Investigators - Book Review

The Three Investigators – The Mystery of the Blazing Cliffs by M.V.Carey; 1992, Bullseye Books, New York.

The Three Investigators have been a personal favorite of mine ever since I came across their adventures. I find the 3 characters who make up the trio well etched and the fact that Alfred Hithcock used to help them is also an added attraction. “The Secret of Terror Castle” and the “The Mystery of the Screaming Clock” are top class dectective fare. But something has gone wrong with this book – the spunk is missing.

Let me explain: all the ingredients on the surface seems to be there but that one vital ingredient that sets aside a routine teenage detective story from the others is missing. It could be the fact that the original author – Robert Arthur – is not the author of this book. M.V.Carey is. It could also be the fact that flying saucers/ET/aliens are such a well-exploited theme that when the aliens do appear, it is of no surprise at all. Of course there is a twist in the tale. But even that is so long in the coming that we are only relieved when the end looms in the horizon.

One major difference (if you are an Alfred Hitchcock fan) in this 32nd adventure is that there is no more Hitchcock. An out-ofwork old detective called Hector Sebestian writes the foreword and afterword.

But I’m getting ahead of myself. Let’s start with the story. One of the customers of Jones Salvage Yard Sir Charles Barron asks Jupiter, Pete, and Bob to deliver some scrap to their ranch a few miles away. On reaching there, Mrs. Barron urges the boys to stay for dinner. Fortuinetaly, or unfortunately they are unable to get out of the ranch as someone plays a huge hoax on the Barrons exploting their sympathy for the aliens who they believe will purge humanity of its ills and evils by destroying earth and saving only a select group of people to continue the human race. They believe that the self-sufficient ranch will be the chosen one. Using this as a leverage, some people try to get Charles Barron to part with his gold. Thanks to the three investigators, they don’t.

One plus point, and for me this is a huge plus point in this book is that the grammar and punctuation were in place. I’m so glad to know that there are some scrupulous editors out there. I know what it is to read a book where the commas and the semi-colons are misplaced. Lynn Truss (the author of “Eats, Shoots and Leaves”) will be very pleased.

All in all, this edition of the Three Investigators Mystery is a good timepass. Read it when you have nothing else to read and your hands are itching for a book. Pssst....before I go, I have to tell you that I picked this book up for a measly 50 bucks at a sale!


Rating: * * (timepass; okay)


My Rating System:

* * * * * = Khallas (Deadly)
* * * * = Bindaas (Great)
* * * = Jhakaas (Good)
* * = Timepass(Okay)
* = Bakwaas (Avoid it)

I don’t think I have to apologize for being who I am

It irks me no end to know that everytime I move a muscle, I’m being judged. I try not to think about about it. But sometimes, it stares at me in the face and I have no choice but to confront it. I know that a certain level of judging cnnot be helped and sometimes may even be needed (like in an interview) but unwanted unwarrented judging really annoys me. Why? It’s as if I have to apologize for being who I am. The point is: I don't see why.

I’m a unique individual inhabiting my own unique space in the world. Unless and untill I trample on another’s space or hurt them in any way, I don’t think I have to apologize. Most people would consider me a happy-go-lucky, loud, garrulous person. (Not that I’m not ever down. I have my ups and downs like any normal person.) I know that this is the way other people perceive me from the way people speak about me. Apparently, that’s not the norm. What is the norm? I don’t know. Someone some where is quiet. Someone (like me) some where is loud and garrulous. Someone (like me) some where has to be ‘tolerated.’ Someone somewhere laughs loudly (Hell, I do. So shoot me!) Someone some where is too tall. Or too short. Or too funny. Or too bald. Or too young.... the list is endless. I think that these characteristics are treated as character flaws. And that is what I disagree with. Imagine a world where everyone is exactly like the other. What kind of life would we have then?

Most of the time when someone makes a comment that makes me feel judged (good or bad) I ask why. I want to know the reasons. Why, today someone made a comment that my relatively quiet neighbour at work has to tolerate me. (Not the exact words, but this is pretty much the gist of it.) Tolerate because he is quiet, and I’m not. I still don't get the connection. How come no one asks me why or how I have to tolerate him? (I don't have to. He’s a nice guy.) So, I had to get to the crux of the matter. I tried asking them, ‘So, what does XYZ have to tolerate?” The answer quite simply is me. But no, the person just shut up. As if he/she knows that he/she is wrong or has spoken too much or maybe I have heard too much. Why can’t people just let other people be?

Most of the jokes that I have heard about me are centered around judging me. Some people ask, “Why are you taking this so seriously? This is just a joke.” I have nothing to tell them. Not because I don't have an answer, but how do you tell people that, “Hello! I don’t like being judged. Not even in jest.” Or “Don’t you know? I’m not what you judge me to be.”

I guess all of us do some amount of judging at any given point in time. But I feel that judging prejudices a person’s perception of another’s abilities. I’m not flawless. I have judged and I have been proven wrong. I have graciously accepted it too. But I try consciously not to judge. Each time, I’m lean towards making a judgement, I check myself. I say to myself, “Maybe I could be wrong.. Maybe it’s a bad day. I hope things get better.”

A certain amount of judging is necessary for survival. Like when you need to decide if the guy who is following you can really hurt you. Or if the client really likes your work. Or if that good-looking guy is really interested in you. But it’s the petty judging that makes me feel belittled that really irks me. It’s neither helpful nor constructive, and certainly makes me feel uncomfortable. Moreover, I don't think I have to explain why I am the way I am to anyone.

To reading heaven and back: a non-critical, whimsical piece on Vikram Seth’s travelogue

I have just finished reading Vikram Seth’s travelogue “From Heaven Lake: travels in Sinkiang and Tibet” (1983). It’s an unusual travel book. Steering clear of all Lonely Planet Guides and regular travel routes, Seth manages to sketch a picture of China, Tibet, and Nepal from a hungry (quite literally) student traveller’s perspective. He was at that time a student at the Nanjing University. Taking time and money off from the Standford University, Seth stays in China for 2 years. When the time comes for him to return home, he decides on a mega unconventional route. Abandoning all idea of taking a flight out of Xian or Chengdu (cities other than Beijing and Shanghai that we are not familiar with). He decides to take a rather long, hungry, cold rounadabout hitchhiking trip that takes him into the world’s least known areas. The time is the 80s. Seth knows Chinese so well that at one point in time during the trip he had to speak it badly with effort so that people come to his aid.

Seth has been called the “pin-up boy” of Indian Writing in English partly because of his rugged good looks and partly because of “A Suitable Boy.” But in this lesser known work, he shines through both as a writer and a humourist. Unlike other travellers, Seth concentrates on the inner journey as much as the outer.

Seth writes like a song. The flow in uninterrupted and he has amazing control over his words. Each word has been chosen in keeping with what precise emotion he wants to convey. As Arielle says, he is a classical writer, no gimmicks.

A litany of places with sing song names like Turfan, Tarim, Changau, Antioch, Yarkhand, Khotan, Urumqui, Kashgar, Kuche, Xian, Liuyuan, Dunhuang, Sichuan, Qinghai, Nanhu, Chengde, Germu, Lanzhou, Xining, Chaidam, Naqu, Anduo, Liaoning, Jokhang, Drepung, Norbulingka, Chengdu, Zhang mu, Dingri, Chamdo, Shigatse, Nilamn, Zhangmu pepper the travelogue but the writescape starts to get less exotic and more familiar by the time Seth reaches Lhasa and then Kathmandu.

Reading Seth is always a pleasure: like sipping iced tea in hot weather. It refreshed my city-weary mind. It’s all the travelling that I can do without getting bee-stung, flea-bitten, and frozen-toed not to mention altitude sickness. There is one phrase that I can’t get out of my head: “delicious calm.” It makes me taste “calm” like some specific cuisine. Salud to the delicious calm of reading Vikram Seth!

Rating: * * * * * Khallas (Deadly)

My Rating System:

* * * * * = Khallas (Deadly)
* * * * = Bindaas (Great)
* * * = Jhakaas (Good)
* * = Timepass(Okay)
* = Bakwaas (Avoid it)

The incomparable detective Feluda

Satyajit Ray's Feluda has been a favourite of mine ever since I read it on a train journey from Calcutta to Madras. I was I think 13 and the journey long with only my pesky little brother for company. Mom took us to Oxford Bookstore on Park Street in Calcutta and bought "The Adventures of Feluda", the first of the Feluda adventures to be translated into English. It was a blue colour book that started my Feluda fixation. So I read about Feluda the incomparable Charminar-smoking detective with a razor sharp brain, his Watson Topshe and the ever-funny Lal Mohan Ganguly, the writer of bumbling overseas adventures with incorrigible names like "Holocaust in Honolulu" on a moving train to music graciously provided by my travelling companions, a band of North Eastern boys who were strumming the guitar nearby. And I have not yet forgotten what I read. Till date I recommend Feluda adventures to anybody who'd care to listen. The only flip side is that when I accidentally recommend them to Bengalis, they say, "So, you've read them only in English? You have read nothing. It's better in Bangla." busting my little bubble.

I have since then collected all the adventures of Feluda. And now for some interesting news: Sandip Ray is making Tinterreto's Jesus one of Feluda's later cases into a movie. I must admit I haven’t seen any Sandip Ray's Feluda films. My favourites still are Joi Baba Felunath and Shonar Kella. But I am eagerly waiting for this one.

PS: Feluda to the uninitiated is Prodosh Mitter, the detective who lives in Calcutta. He is a private investigator in the style of Sherlock Holmes, taking up only interesting cases and willing to put both physical and mental energy into solving them. He is assisted by his 14-year-old cousin, Tapesh (aka Topshe) an able lieutenant who records the cases and picks up useful snippets of Feluda's methods on the way. The two are also accompanied by Lalmohan Ganguly, an enthusiastic and cheerful companion who writes potboiler thrillers under the name of Jatayu.