Literature is the best form of immortality. You would agree with me as I write this, for like me you would have heard the Vikram Vetala legend, read about it in comics most likely or had it narrated as a folktale to you by your parents/grandparents for bedtime.
For those of you who do not know, Vikram Betall is based on the mythical king Vikramaditya of Ujjain who encountered a ghost Vetala in a cremation ground, who promised to tell him stories only on the condition that the king would remain silent all the time, only then he would accompany the king. The trickster the ghost was, he asked the king questions at the end of each storytelling session for 24 times in a row, prompting the king to break his promise and flying back to the tree where the king found him, making the king repeat this ordeal 24 times. But at the 25th time, even the legendary king, famed for his discretion and valor could not answer the question, which finally satisfied the ghost and he went along with the king, keeping his promise. These stories are now known as Betal Pachisi, immortalized in television and books over many generations.
That satisfies the condition of my opening lede( lede means an opening line in magazine slang, as the once Time magazine editor Richard Stengel put it).
To talk about another enduring classic which would definitely need no introduction on my part, is Sherlock Holmes, written by the renowned detective story writer Arthur Conan Doyle. Sherlock was based on the now famous surgeon Dr Joseph Bell, professor to Doyle, possessing the same ability to make Holmesian leaps of logic just like the character he inspired. Bell could tell the profession and recent doings of someone by just observing him, a quality Doyle gave to Holmes, which has since become an inimitable trademark.
Holmes has now an Indian connect, for in a recent BBC greenlighting, a series will be made on the stories, following the example of the megahit series in Britain of the same name, employing the lanky, completely thespian KK Menon as the eponymous detective, Dr Watson to be played by Ranvir Shorey, another actor of the talented mold, Usha Uthup, the much beloved singer as Mrs Hudson, fellow actors Rasika Dugal and Koushik Sen as Irene Adler and Mycroft Holmes, to be helmed by Srijit Mukherji, set in parts of Bengal and while no release date has been specified, October is speculated.
