The trailblazing female detectives of India | #151
Also, the real story behind Maa Tujhe Salaam 🇮🇳
Hello friends,
Byomkesh Bakshy, Karamchand, Feluda, Shivaji Suratkal.. What connects them? Apart from being fictional sleuths, they are all men. Why hasn’t Indian pop culture created a female private detective?
It's time to celebrate the real badass female detectives of India. These women have broken barriers and solved some of the toughest cases out there. From a journalist turned detective to a teenage prodigy, these sleuths have proven that they can hold their own in a male-dominated field. So, without further ado, let's dive into some fun stories about these trailblazing women.
Things we learnt this week 🤓
A relative gives your family an expensive gift. But your inquisitive mind says… Kucch to gadbad hai. And you investigate and find out that it is a counterfeit. That was the very first case in the life of Rajani Pandit. After graduation, she joined an office as a clerk where a colleague confided in her that she suspected her daughter-in-law of stealing from her. Rajani, offered to find the truth and stationed herself outside the colleague’s house. She discovered that the colleague’s son would come home when nobody else was around and steal the money. After that Rajani opened her own private detective agency called Rajani Investigation Bureau, becoming the first woman to do so. She is said to have solved over 5000 cases and has been employed by political parties to conduct background checks. Rajani found her calling and truth is her business.
Bhavna Paliwal was working as an intern at a newspaper office, when she chanced upon a classified. A detective agency was looking for candidates and Bhavna applied. She got the job and was assigned to her first case to find the whereabouts of a girl. She went to meet the family as a sales girl and extracted information about how the family was treating the girl. In another case, she became a maid at a house and stayed in a small hut with other women, who were working as domestic workers. Today Bhavna specializes in extra-marital affairs and is the Miss who solves the mistress mystery.
This profession came naturally to Tanya Puri, daughter of Baldev Puri, who was a detective himself. Tanya was given puzzles by her dad and she would diligently solve it. She helped solve a case for her father, while still in college, and that was the spark for Tanya to set her own path. She opened her own agency - Lady Detectives Agency and has solved multiple cases since. She believes that women blend into the surroundings easily and hence nobody suspects them. Tanya Puri has turned her love for puzzles into a profitable profession.
From IWTK, with love 💌
A request from a freedom fighter father to his son, to sell India to Indians… it resulted in an epic album. Know more here.
How did some of our Sandalwood stars get their iconic nicknames? Read more here.
Only In India 🇮🇳
Their marriage needed sparks, but they ended up getting fire
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