Sherlock Holmes

It has been a long time since I have written in this space. Time is a constraint which prevented me from doing so. Another issue is a topic I am interested in. Let me update you the things which happened in my life since my last post.

The biggest story is that I am now an earning member of my family. I am now able to support my dad in running the family. Though he doesn't ask me for anything, I am now capable and will be helping him in any circumstances. Me becoming an earning member itself is a story. I am greatly indebtful to a friend of mine without whom, I would have still been sitting at home thinking what to do next. Thanks to him, I am now one among the 303,000 strong workforce of a 126 year old German automotive giant who has overall revenues running in the order of 50 million Euros in the last fiscal and has presence in nearly 60 countries worldwide, through more than 350 subsidiaries.

Now, that I am earning, I am now starting to realize my many dreams. One such dream was to own The Complete Sherlock Holmes. Though I had read almost all the adventures, I am a big fan of the character created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, I never had a copy of it by myself. I always read the copies owned by my friends, who were kind enough to lend me their copies to savour the mystery solving adventures of one of the most famous, and the only “consulting detective”. Now, I am a proud owner of an imported hardcover, published by Vintage Books in 2009, commemorating the 150^th birth anniversary of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (Buy the book in flipkart or amazon). In fact, I am going to tell about his adventures, the way I perceived it and enjoyed it.

I was introduced to Sherlock Holmes by my maternal grandfather. In my childhood, he subscribed to a summer library program by The Trivandrum Publications. They send us a set of books by post at the beginning of every summer. I used to eagerly wait for their books as it started in me a great eagerness to read. They contained many small books, easy enough for kid of that age to handle. Moreover, it was in my mother tongue which made it easy for me to understand the stories easily. The books include 1001 Nights, the Arabian fables, books on English grammar, and many more. That’s all what I could remember.

Of all the books, I was interested in Sherlock Holmes the most. They had one or two short stories at a time and I would finish the book in a single sitting and eagerly waited for the next. Though it was a little bit difficult to sink into the Victorian setup, being a Keralite young boy, the stories were far beyond the crutches of such limitations. It was the mystery and suspense that intrigued me. In the evenings, I used to sip the hot glass of Complan (yes!! I was a Complan boy! Still, I didn’t get that height and physique as the ads say) and read the stories. I re read all the Holmes stories available to me umpteen number of times. Some stories were even by heart to me at those times. After I read “The Dancing Men” (First appeared in The Strand magazine in 1903), I even prepared my own version of the code and tried to teach it myself and my sister, which met with great failure.

Now, years after that, I was reading the recently acquired book, sipping a hot glass of Complan (yes, still I am a Complan boy, waiting for the ads to become true!!!!) which aroused the old memories in me regarding the Sherlock Holmes.

A year ago, I happened to come across a modern take on Sherlock Holmes – Sherlock, which came as a TV series in BBC One in 2010. What I felt is that the creators, Steven Moffat and Mark Grattis had done a beautiful job of recreating the adventures of Sherlock Holmes in the 21^st century. The telegraphs are replaced by SMS and the diary of Dr Watson is replaced by his blog. It is simply great. They have already aired 2 seasons of three episodes each. Another 3-episode season is about to start its production in January, 2013 and airing date is not yet announced. It is very sad that they only air 3 episodes per season. Benedict Cumberbatch as Holmes and Martin Freeman as his trusty compliance have done their job exceptionally well. Cumberbatch is a delight to watch as Sherlock with all the eccentricities and intelligence neatly portrayed by him.

CBS, have started their version of modern Sherlock, with a small twist. In Elementary, they have made a makeover for the trusted companion of Sherlock. Dr Watson is no longer a “he”. Dr. Joan Watson (played by Lucy Liu) comes to live with Sherlock Holmes (played by Jonny Lee Miller), who has moved to New York as a part of drug rehabilitation. Watson is employed by Holmes’ father to help Holmes in rehabilitation. I have not yet seen any of the episodes of this, but I am looking forward to see the episodes.