We had returned to our room. The passport-size photograph of Muktananda was now with Feluda. I could not imagine why Mr Chowdhury had given it to him and told him he had a job. Lalmohan Babu, however, ventured to hazard a guess. ‘I think he asked you to become a follower of Muktananda,’ he observed. ‘Then why did he raise two fingers?’ ‘Maybe he meant . . . as a follower of Muktananda, your skills at your job would double themselves? Mind you,’ Lalmohan Babu added sadly, ‘I cannot figure out why he then shook his thumb at you!’ Early in the morning, Akhil Chakravarty rang us to say that Mahesh Chowdhury had breathed his last two hours after we had left his house the previous night. By the time the funeral was over, it was past eleven o’clock. On our way back from the cremation ground, Lalmohan Babu asked, ‘Where do you want to go now, Felu Babu? To Kailash, or back home?’ ‘I don’t think we should spend any more time in Kailash, just at this moment. They are bound to receive a lot of visitors. I won’t get any work done.’ ‘What work do you mean?’ ‘Gathering information.’ After lunch, Feluda took out his blue notebook and began scribbling in it. When he finished, he let us see what he had written: 1. Mahesh Chowdhury: Born 23 November 1907; died 24 November 1977 (Natural causes? Heart attack? Shock?). Fond of riddles, stamps, butterflies, rocks. A valuable stamp album given by Dorabjee—lost (how?). Attached to second son. What about his feelings towards the other two? Deep affection towards Shankarlal. No snobbery. Violent temper in the past; drinking. A changed man in later years, amiable. Why a curse? 2. His wife: Dead. When? 3. First son: Arunendra. Born (approx.) 1936. Deals with mica. Travels between Calcutta and Hazaribagh. Fond of shooting. Doesn’t talk much. 4. Second son: Birendra. Born (approx.) 1939. Very bright, a rebel. Left home at nineteen. Admired Col. Suresh Biswas. Wrote to father until 1967. Alive? Dead? Father thought he had returned 5. Third son: Pritindra. Younger than Arunendra by at least nine years (basis: family photo), i.e. born (approx.) 1945. Electronics. Bird calls. Talks a lot, chiefly about himself. Left tape recorder in Rajrappa. 6. Pritin’s wife: Neelima. Age twenty-five/twenty-six. Intelligent, smart, collected.

7. Akhil Chakravarty: Age (approx.) seventy. Ex-schoolteacher. Mahesh’s friend. Astrology, ayurveda. 8. Shankarlal Misra: Born (approx.) 1939. Same age as Biren. Mahesh’s chowkidar Deendayal’s son. Deendayal died in 1943. Question: why did he go into the forest? Mahesh raised Shankarlal. Owner of bookshop. Griefstricken by Mahesh’s death. 9. Noor Muhammad: Age between seventy and eighty. Serving Mahesh for over forty years. Feluda was right in thinking there might be a lot of visitors. When we arrived at Kailash long after lunch, we were told the last of them had just left. Mr Chowdhury’s two sons and Akhil Chakravarty were in the drawing room. Pritin Babu seemed more restless than ever. He was