Tale of Autograph

During my schooldays, like most teenagers, I was glued to fiction—both English and Bengali. It is an important phase in any person’s life because this is when you graduate from bed-time stories of Snow White and Rapunzel, which are imposed on you every night by your parents, to a more ‘mature age’ of superheroes, super detectives and super adventures. It is a time when you first exercise your choice in selecting the book you want to read. You are exposed to Sherlock Holmes, Tin Tin, Superman, and in a more vernacular context, my favourite detective—Feluda, a creation of a great filmmaker and a noted author Satyajit Ray. (Unfortunately, Harry Potter was not around then). With age, you become selective and get glued to your favourite authors. As school was over, I moved on and started focusing on more mature pieces, perhaps in an effort to prove I have grown up, by serious writers such as Faulkner, Neruda and Kafka, and not to mention mature graphic novelists such as Frank Miller and Neil Gaiman.

However, in my heart of hearts, Feluda remained and still remains my favourite hero. My childhood dream was to get a chance to meet Mr Ray and get his autograph on my favourite Feluda book. Unfortunately, even before I was old enough to travel by myself to his Bishop Lefroy Road residence in Kolkata he had passed away. Years passed by, but the desire of getting his autograph never died knowing fully well Mr Ray himself has. Last summer, I was going through piles of old books in the Kolkata heat at College Street, a place where all you get is books and more books. Suddenly, I saw a nearly-torn, dog-eared Feluda book. I instinctively picked it up as I couldn’t resist my hero’s appeal. I opened it and, to my surprise, saw Mr Ray’s autograph to a boy named Mukul dating back to 1981. I don’t know why this Mukul sold off this priceless copy but I am glad that he did. It was a miracle. Mr Ray lives on and still manages to delight his readers.