Rambharosar Motorgari

The miserly hardfisted Rambharosa Agarwal, an affluent businessman of Herbertgunj wants to lead a life of piling money but for his wife and son who want to have their own family car. Their insistence gets the better of him and he agrees to purchase one. Happy at the prospects, Suresh, the son, immediately gets some catalogues and shows his dad. But hearing the price of the vehicles that runs in lakhs, Rambharosa is shell shocked. But as he had already promised, Rambharosa cannot take back his word. So he gets hold of an agent to buy a second hand car. With his bare minimum budget of just 10000, what happens next is a hilarious comedy full of merriment and fun. Though somewhat predictable at times, but the best thing of the story is its fast paced refreshing humour with its comically colourful characters that freshens up the mind while enlivening the reading moments.

Pichone Paer Shabda

In the past I had read quite a few stories of Prafulla Ray. So when I saw that he also writes detective novels it seemed quite interesting. Infact the story is quite fast and full of adventurous situations. But with coincidences galore and all so conveniently placed that though the storytelling is interesting but the detection part beocmes quite boring. Also if somebody tells me after reading this that he can find trace of a Byomkesh plot and the final scenes based on the scenes of a Feluda novel, I think it will be not incorrect. Mainak, the detective with his equally wise aunt Hemalata, a widow with a sharp sense of self respect, shares interest in solving crimes. But their detection process seems to be based on direct observations leading to inferences with Mainak missing some obvious clues that his aunt catches staying in the house. The analytical ability of the sleuths are never exploited. Also there are some clear mistakes in the plot where taxi turns to a motorbike. So this may be a good story but not a wise one.