I am attributed my one-way ticket to this world. In all those miseries, Mum and daughter just kept afloat. By reading, I could live more intensely. I never did sink into depression and listlessness and decided to write a book, a refreshing, sweet detective story series for all ages.
Few people reviewed that since the tales are based out of Kolkata they are reminiscent of Byomkesh Bakshi but they were a whole new ball game. Byomkesh Bakshi and Ajit are reminiscent of Sherlock Holmes and Watson but here it is Mum, a caregiver to her ill daughter with her peculiar alertness with an unexpectedly brilliant and problem-solving mind and her observant nature leads her to notice things overlooked by police and by those little things she solves cases and helps the police. With her schoolgirl type haircut, she enjoys the guise of a harmless little lady. Princess doesn't dwell on her illness and being intelligent she helps Mum think up the meanings of riddles.
The book is a children's book as much as Agatha Christie and Enid Blyton's are but it is different because the primary characters of the series and a few situations are drawn from my own life enhanced by imagination.
I have known "seasoned readers" being happy with a deeper sense of satisfaction with Enid Blyton, Nancy Drew, Roald Dahl whose writing appeal to humans of all ages about emotions and difficult topics with so much care and humor. I don't count myself amongst those timeless authors but I do deserve some credit for my multiple rare diseases, brain tumors, lancinating pain, and partial blindness, I didn't sit back and relax. I wanted the world to sit up and take note Payel Bhattacharya existed.
In Woody Allen's words "So often people think they grasp reality when what they're really responding to is "fakeositude".
Actually what they mean in a thrilling novel is romance, thrill, and violence.
So, half- laughingly I thought of writing a novel with some difference.
The story starts with the tale of a missing girl. Police are interviewing everyone -- parents, elder sister, even little brother who is a mere toddler. Dr. John Brown who used to treat her for her mood disorder and an anxiety problem is of the opinion that he was thinking about stopping her medicines because she was cured by her mother's profound love. Police are doing their best to find her by announcing the tragedy in every newspaper, every news channel going from person to person and every child in the school and making inquiries because the lost child's father is a secretary to the state minister and they can't fail him.
In her grief, Nina enters her missing child Mina's room. As Nina advanced towards the window she saw a faint blue light coming through the window falling on her closet. Everything in the closet was in a disarray but she found something in the rear part jammed between the closet and the wall where light played across in speckles and spots. She found her diary and thought of reading it as it might throw some light on her disappearance. The diary seemed to tell her something special.
Nina discovers her child Mina has the unusual power to see dead people and they often visit her often around sundown and how the thing started. She faced lots of problems in school but Mina was smart enough to research various civilizations and their beliefs in ghosts.
One night she was visited by a handsome man when she had a sudden vision. The next time the Ghost appears he tells his story about treachery and in a counter-terrorism mission to hunt down who is selling agency secrets and how he was betrayed and killed. The ghost seeks help from her and tells his entire story and in between Mina falls in love with him. He explains her not to be silly because they are both in different worlds. The story goes on with the visits of the ghost after sundown and leaving with the first ray of light and Mina's school and family events. The ghost tells about his secret mission and how after he acquired the proof he was murdered. Since then he was in search of a necromancer or someone who could see ghosts and help him. Together they acquire the proof and send it to the person who will take the right action. The diary ends here and a note is added that it is delusion or dramatization and every experience is reality. It was written keeping in mind that in the process of meeting with the ghost and helping her if something happens to her reading it others might know the truth.
Not being able to know what happened to her daughter Nina felt the diary had some soul within itself and wanted to communicate with her. She and her husband found that every bit of it is the truth from news and wanted to meet Father Peter Marshall, a professor in parapsychology who acts as a medium. Seeing her mother in grief, elder sister Gina starts investigating with her boyfriend. Mina's friend June tells her she was popular and none hated her but she tells of the incident of psychotic Bala whom Mina challenged in a basketball game and he lost but swore to settle the score. Here The Father steps in and explains to Mina's father that there's been a foul play and she has been killed but she's around them. They sat in a séance and called the spirit. Mina appeared and confessed that a brat put a trap for her and how she had a violent death but fought till the last moment. Mina's father put in all his efforts to get proof against the culprit and when they entered the room they saw that he was already dead by asphyxiation but his eyes bulged out wide with fear. Mina's spirit appeared to her mother Nina to bid farewell. Mina left for the fabled land of heaven together with Mr. Ghost.
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