The moment I travel outside India or to a place where there is no access to Indian TV channels, there are only a couple of options left. One is of course the internet but how much can one have of it? No one’s going to mail or scrap you every 15-20 minutes. The only other option is reading. I can do serious reading only while I am on the birth of a AC Sleeper compartment. On other occasions I only manage to read Feluda – an eternal favorite. So at this moment when I have access to both the net and my Feluda collection (and no Indian channels to surf), I list down my top five Feluda mysteries which by now I can even read backwards.

1) Badshahi Aangti (The Emperor’s Ring): The hallmark of Feluda stories is the fact that how a travelogue is woven with a trail of mystery. This is one such thriller which can never escape the memory of a Feluda fan. This was one of the earliest Feluda stories (in fact the second), and the first of the major ones. The super sleuth Feluda was still not a professional and did not yet have his visiting card stating “Private Investigator” (seeing which many a policeman would take off their hats later on). While each of the characters are introduced – Dhiru Kaka, Dr Srivastav, Bonbiharibabu, Ganesh Guha and Mahavir, you can almost smell the mystery which is about to set in and at the same time have a charming tour of the city of Lucknow. While you are still thinking as to how the ring disappeared from Dhiru-kaka’s Godrej almirah, at the same time you would literally find yourself lost in the Bhulbhulaiya maize. Ironically, the maize plays a big role in the mystery which itself turns into a maize of suspicious characters. The train journey to Haridwar where you can almost hear the Heina screaming from a distance on Bonbihari babu’s tape, I could literally feel my bed shaking like that of a running train. And all throughout the journey – from Residency to Hazratganj in Lucknow to Haridwar, the mystery never leaves you; it just gives you breaks while you watch new places. The climax on the road to Laxmanjhula gives you shivers as you hear the rattling of the rattle-snake and when finally the mystery of Pyarelal’s “Spy” is unraveled, you tend to feel “Wow, how could we have missed that?” No matter how many times you read this, each time your mind loves to travel to Laxmanjhula and the Black Widow sounds equally terrifying even after the umpteenth read.

2) Sonar Kella (The Golden Fortress): Probably the most famous Feluda classic mainly because it was made into a masterpiece motion picture by the master himself. It’s the story (or rather the film) which immortalized the Fort of Jaisalmer made of yellow limestone and most certainly re-christened it as the Sonar Kella or the Golden Fortress. Since the film stole a march over the book, I will stick to the film itself. The highlight of the story is the introduction of Jatayu aka Lalmohan Ganguli, the writer of best-seller crime thrillers whose alliteration based titles are as tough to interpret as his stories itself. His introduction scene in the Toofan Express first class compartment as he boards the train in Kanpur station is part of folklore now and every Bengali of that generation can deliver the entire dialogue that took during that journey to Jodhpur. Then follows the unforgettable search for the golden fortress through the streets of Rajasthan from the circuit house to Bikaner and via Ramdeorah and Pokhran to finally Jaisalmer to unravel the mystery of the fortress, not to forget the fascinating camel ride (which was supposedly Jatayu’s dream). Through the journey, the con-man Bose steals the show as a masquerading globe-trotter but even his attempts to ‘puncture’ Feluda’s plans take a beating . You tend to live the moment every time you read the book or watch the film. No wonder tourism to Rajasthan increased by leaps and bounds with people from the east ganging up there to check out the Sonar Kella.

3) London-e Feluda (Feluda in London): London has always been a dream destination for me. Its history, its association with cricket, its famous landmarks and off-late the soccer clubs gives us Indians a sense of familiarity with the place, making it unofficially a home away from home. I have never been there but thanks to this Feluda story, it was as close as I could have gone. Feluda takes you to Oxford Street (which Lalmohan babu calls it ‘an ocean of humanity’), Cambridge and Richmond through London’s famous tube network (rail to Cambridge). And when the Cam River turns out to be the root cause of the mystery, you feel like taking a boat ride along it. One of the highlights of this story is Feluda’s visit to Baker’s Street where he salutes his guru and says “We are here because you were there”.

4) Baksho Rohoshyo (Incident on the Kalka Mail): This makes it to the list solely because of a trip to my favorite hill station Shimla. Not a large scale mystery but nevertheless a gripping journey through the streets of Calcutta to Delhi and then to a snow covered Shimla. Feluda shows a rare moment of weakness which he admits and pays the price for it as he gets chloroformed at the door entrance of his hotel room. And later he again admits to being a “fool” as he finds out that the mystery of the attaché case was actually inside the small film-roll box which was innocently travelling in Jatayu’s pocket as a mouth-freshener. The climax in the snow makes you feel chilly and Jayayu’s boomerang has the last word.

5) Ganktok-e Gandogol (Trouble in Gangtok): Another holiday where trouble beckons Feluda and he turns up investigating an accident which in reality is a murder. The journey starts off at Bagdogra airport and takes off on an unforgettable journey into Sikkim. The fascinating descriptions of every nook and corner of Gangtok leaves us spell-bound and every character is more mysterious that the other – Helmut – the German photographer, Nishikant, Dr Baidya and Shashodhar babu. One mystery adds spice to the other as Shelvankar’s accident investigation takes a twist with the turn of every page. Feluda had turned pro by this time and this was definitely not going to be the last time that he would be on duty on a holiday.