‘See how you like my card.’ Feluda fished out a visiting card from his wallet and held it before me. It said: PRADOSH C. MITTER, PRIVATE INVESTIGATOR. Feluda was clearly trying to publicize what he did for a living. And why not? After his success over the missing diamond ring that had once belonged to Emperor Aurangzeb, he was fully entitled to tell everyone how clever he had been. But, of course, he didn’t really have to worry about publicity. A lot of people had come to know about the case, anyway. In fact, Feluda had received a couple of offers ‘already, but he didn’t accept them as they were not challenging enough. He put the card back in his wallet, and stretched his legs on the low table in front of him. ‘It looks like I shall get the chance to exercise my brain during this Christmas break,’ he said casually. ‘Why? Have you found a new mystery?’ I asked. Feluda’s words had made me quite excited, but I didn’t show it. He took out a small box from a side pocket and helped himself to some supari from it. ‘You appear greatly excited,’ he observed. What? How did he guess? Feluda explained even before I could ask. ‘Are you wondering how I knew? It isn’t always possible to hide your feelings, you know, even if you try. Little things often give one away. When I made that remark about working during this Christmas break, you were about to yawn. My words made you close your mouth abruptly. If you were truly indifferent to what I said, you’d have finished your yawn in the usual way, without breaking it off.’ Once again I was startled by his powers of observation. ‘Without being able to observe and take in even the minutest detail, no one can claim to be a detective,’ Feluda had often said to me. ‘Sherlock Holmes has shown us the way. All we need to do is follow him.’ ‘You didn’t tell me why you will need to exercise your brain,’ I reminded him. ‘Have you heard of Kailash Chowdhury, of Shyampukur?’ ‘No. There are so many famous people in our city. I cannot have heard of all of them. I am only fifteen!’ Feluda lit a cigarette. ‘His family owned a lot of land in Rajshahi. They were zamindars. But they also had property in Calcutta, so they moved here after Partition. Kailash Chowdhury is a lawyer. He used to go on shikar and, in fact, became quite well-known as a shikari. He even wrote two books on the subject. Sometime ago, an elephant went mad in the Jaldapara Reserve Forest and began creating such havoc that Kailash Babu was called in to kill it. His name was mentioned in almost every paper.’ ‘I see. What has all this to do with your brain? Is there a mystery regarding Kailash Chowdhury?’ Instead of giving me an answer, Feluda took out a letter from the front pocket