A Detective Debuts: ‘The Calcutta Covenant’ Hits the Shelves

🖊️Sohini Ganguly

It is safe to say that Kolkata loves its detectives. Be it Feluda, Kakababu, Kiriti Roy or Byomkesh Bakshi, the city has brought all these fictional characters to life with its unending love for their stories over the decades. Now that a new sleuth is in town, it’s time for Kolkata to open up its heart again!

Prithviraj Banerjee, starring the pages of Arindam Basu’s The Calcutta Covenant, had his formal introduction on 3rd February, 2025 at the Book Launch Event of the book at IKBF’s Press Corner. The grand event, a jolly celebration of the book and the author, commenced under the moderation of Saikat Majumdar, Assistant Professor at SNU’s MCAJ Department and Arindam Basu’s lifelong friend where Prof. (Dr.) Dhrubajyoti Chattopadhyay, Vice Chancellor at SNU; Dr. Snehasish Sur, President, Press Club; Dr. Minal Pareek, Dean of School of Media Communications, Fine Arts & Design; and Saptarshi Maulik, Actor consisted of the guest panel. 

After the panel was introduced, Dr. Dhrubajyoti Chattopadhyay talked about the passionate, all-rounder nature of Arindam Basu, Assistant Professor of MCAJ Department, SNU. In praising and congratulating the talented author, his friend and colleague, Dr. Minal Pareek expressed her pride in his ability to balance all his various sectors of work and his contributions. 

Mr. Basu successfully held the audience’s breath when he narrated a couple of excerpts from the book demonstrating his brilliant use of the language to sweep his readers away into the world of Prithviraj Banerjee’s Calcutta. “...he works as a building restorer and it just happens that where he goes, dead bodies turn up, and he is always at the wrong place at the right time.” He shared, raising everyone’s curiosity about the main protagonist of the book. 

Amongst his many praises, Dr. Snehasish Sur prided at the success of Mr. Basu through his emotionally charged words, “When one’s student’s book is published, when one’s student attains success… this is a different kind of joy. This, for those who haven’t been a teacher, won’t understand.” Both him and Mr. Majumdar also took the opportunity to address Mr. Basu’s incredible ability to write masterpieces, even under extreme pressure situations. 

“Any art is only successful when the artist does it for happiness without any agenda.” wisely expressed actor Saptarshi Maulik applauding Mr. Basu for taking out time from his extremely busy schedule to write the book. “I think that from today, you all are also a part of this book. Love this book dearly, so more books like this can be published.” he further addressed the audience, urging them to treat the book as their own. 

The book, The Calcutta Covenant, published and nurtured under the utmost care of Penprints Publications, is a fast paced book that comes in a hard cover with its dark, alluring cover page, effortlessly grabbing avid readers’ attention. As a tribute to Feluda, his inspiration, Mr. Basu mentioned utilizing alliterated story names in his book. “Regarding the inspiration, the idea, at the base of it, just how Dolon’s contribution must be acknowledged. I had created this character and she was the one who asked me to make it a series. The fact that I am a huge Feluda fan must also be acknowledged. Much like Lalmohan Ganguly books all my stories have an alliterative title like Mysterious Manor, Calcutta Covenant and so on,” Mr. Basu said, sharing the origins of his book and acknowledging his wife’s (Dolon Dasbhaumik Basu) contributions. 

The end of the event came to be with the commencement of the formal ceremony of The Calcutta Covenant’s launch that echoed with the many shared laughter, heartfelt congratulations and the oozing excitement and curiosity rising over the book.