Scottish author Alexander McCall Smith; (below) the signage in front of the Calcutta police headquarters. Picture by Bishwarup Dutta

He is the man behind The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency, located in modern-day Gaborone, Botswana and founded by Mma Precious Ramotswe. And he is coming to Calcutta.

The theme this book fair is Scotland. That’s the reason Alexander McCall Smith, the writer of the detective series featuring the rotund, wise, independent-minded, stew-making loveable Ms Ramotswe, will deliver the inaugural lecture.

McCall Smith, apart from being Scot, is a former professor of medical law and worked in universities in the UK and abroad. After the publication of his highly successful No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series, which has sold over 15 million copies, he devoted his time to the writing of fiction. The various series he has written have been translated into over 45 languages and have become bestsellers through the world.

The various series are about different places. “In Botswana, we have Precious Ramotswe and friends; in Edinburgh an amateur sleuth called Isabel Dalhousie, and also the latest from 44 Scotland Street; and at the Institute of Romance Philology at Regensburg, Professor Doctor Moritz-Maria von Igelfeld. This is the world as seen in my books,” he greets the visitor on his official website.

With him will arrive a host of other writers and poets from Scotland, including Andrew O’Hagan and Ruth Kirkpatrick, musicians and heritage and architecture experts. Calcutta welcomes you in return.

There may be other good news this book fair. Calcutta is set to be crowned Unesco’s City of Literature, feels the British Council, which is organising the ‘Scotland-Calcutta Konnexions’ programmes at the book fair. The agency is orchestrating a strong bid for the city. The decision will be declared during the Book Fair.

Kill the bill

Public sector companies that are supposed to provide services to consumers are bad enough on their own. When they work in tandem with a similar government agent, consumers are always at the receiving end.

Those who have subscribed to the BSNL broadband may have become victims of their combined inefficiency for their links may have been snapped for no fault of theirs.

The only indication that things have gone wrong is a message that pops up saying that either the password or the user ID is wrong. Mystified, you call 1500 and are told by one of the didis at the other end that your bill has to be cleared. What bill? They can’t explain and neither does the consumer know.

Visit the local BSNL office near Hind cinema and you may find a clarification. The accounts officer will tell you how the bills for October 2008 were never distributed because the postmen had either misplaced or destroyed the entire lot so that they could enjoy the pujas better.

You are told to go downstairs and get a duplicate bill, make the payment and return to him. You do just that and voila, by the evening your broadband link is back. You bless your lucky stars.

Calcutta care

Are people of Calcutta really as caring and concerned as they are supposed to be? A former Calcutta resident who has returned to the city after a year would not agree, not after she visited a shopping mall in Camac Street two days after the Mumbai massacre. A huge colour television was switched on in this mall and groups of people appeared to be mesmerised by the proceedings on the screen — Bollywood songs with a lot of synchronised dance. Truth is, Calcutta and its citizens seem as hooked to talent shows on television. It doesn’t wake up, not unless its corns have been treaded upon. Today Calcutta, perhaps, is more callous than caring.

“Lalled” to sleep?

With terror attacks happening all across the country, should the city police headquarters take recourse to numerology? Has it already? The signage in front of Lalbazar carries an extra “L” in its name.

Let us pray that in troubled times such as these, all flab is shed and Lalbazar presents a fit face, in word and deed.

(Contributed by Soumitra Das and Sudeshna Banerjee)