Byomkesh Bakshi stories: where to start listening

A new lodger in a Kolkata mess who calls himself Atul Chandra Mitra, and a run of murders with a cocaine trade behind them. Satyanweshi begins there, and it is where Ajit meets Byomkesh Bakshi. Saradindu Bandyopadhyay wrote Pather Kanta and Seemanta Heera before it, but Satyanweshi is counted as the first Byomkesh story. Byomkesh does not call himself a detective: the brass plate on his door says satyanweshi, truth-seeker.

Saradindu (1899-1970) wrote 32 complete Byomkesh stories and left a 33rd, Bishupal Badh, unfinished. Ajit tells most of them. In a few late ones, among them Shajarur Kanta, Benisanghar and Lohar Biscuit, Saradindu tells it himself. Satyabati, who becomes Byomkesh's wife, first appears in Arthamanartham, and after a long break Saradindu brought Byomkesh back with Chitrachor in 1951.

Most of the 29 recordings on this page are Saradindu's own stories on Mirchi Bangla's Sunday Suspense, about two dozen of his 33. A few are new stories by other writers, from SANKET Audio Story and BIVA Cafe, and one 15-minute upload is a chat ahead of Shajarur Kanta, not a story. On Sunday Suspense, Mir voiced Byomkesh first and Gaurav Chakrabarty after him. Chiriakhana and Adim Ripu run about five hours each, so begin with a shorter one.