Feluda

I have been re-reading the "Feluda" series by Satyajit Ray, after years. Picked up the omnibus, in two volumes, this time in Calcutta.
These novelettes used to be available for Rs.20 when I was in school, and I used to devour them. My uncle, my father's younger brother possessed a pretty nice collection as well. A few years back, Satyajit Ray's son, Sandip, put together this collection of all the stories.
Perceptions change with time. Feluda, the main character, whom I thought the Perfect Man as a teenager, seems like this totally arrogant know-it-all, spouting information which people are AWARE of in any case, and his cousin's hero-worship is sometimes pretty hard to digest. Jatayu still remains the lovable bumbler, though it's a bit difficult to accept that anyone can be THAT ignorant of certain well-known facts-such as the difference between the walrus and the hippopotamus and that penguins can only be found in Antarctica.
That said I still loved reading the stories. Ray is good at drafting a plot, even though I think he is a better film-maker than a writer. He does detailed travel descriptions too-and sends his detective trio to the most amazing places to solve crimes, from Ellora to Gangtok, from Shimla to -well, nowhere in South India really. Suppose he did not need to come here to shoot movies (it's said that he used to use the locales he shot in as a background for the books).The only thing that irritates me is that the trio spend more time solving crimes and rescuing each other and bringing the evil-doer to book, than in sight-seeing.......but I suppose that's natural if you are a detective?
Also I like the fact that the novels are CLEAN; read, no crimes passionnelle, or however you spell it, no sex,only a minuscule amount of violence, strong bonding between the characters, and thank god, practically none of that stock in trade of detective fiction, the bungling inspector.
Another thing I liked was that different types of crime are dealt with, petty theft, fraud, imposture,smuggling, illegal trade in arts and antiquities, drugs, forgery, even a case of grave robbing, all accompanied by a corpse or two.
Though for a Christie addict, the solutions seem a little too simple and not far-fetched enough :))))..I think these books are definitely for a younger audience.
Read the original Bengali of course, but I think translations are available.