The case of the mystery Sikh

Four writers discover they all have the same character in their brains

THIS IS A REALLY weird story, but it’s true.

Somewhere in the land of fictional characters, there’s a Sikh working for the police force. He’s a traditionalist, with a beard and a turban and a bit of a potbelly. He likes to present an image of being obsessed with his own carnal needs, but underneath all that, he is actually a first class detective. Not for him, all those flashy CSI microscopes. No, a good curry is all he needs to power his investigations.

And although he lives in the land of fictional characters, Inspector Singh likes to quietly materialize in authors’ brains around the world. 

In the UK, he appeared in the brain of novelist Francis King, who shared the exploits of Inspector Singh, investigator of murder among colonial English expats in India.
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In the US, he appeared in the mind of Vikram Chandra, as Inspector Sartaj Singh, chaser of gangsters.
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In the braincells of Singapore-based author Shamini Flint, he stars in a series of new books called Inspector Singh Investigates.
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He also appeared in the imagination of a Hong Kong based author, too: me. My stories feature a policeman named Inspector Jhoti Sagwala Singh and a suspiciously similar private investigator named Sinha.

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It seems unlikely that any of the authors listed above read the works of the others before writing their own, so how did all this come about?

Lots of literary festivals are taking place in Asia this spring, and at one of them, three of us found ourselves sharing a stage.

“Do you know we ALL have characters called Inspector Singh?” I said.

Shamini agreed and replied: “It’s strange. I was told that in the past, there was a whole series of books featuring an Inspector Singh.”

Vikram was fascinated too. Inspector Singh first materialized in his brain for a short story published in 1997, he said. But once it was published, the police officer flatly refused to vacate Vikram’s brain. The author eventually wrote a 900-page book starring Inspector Singh in 2006.

The guy is very demanding. Shamini had a similar experience. She has now written four Inspector Singh books in quick succession and feels driven by her lead character to keep going.
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That afternoon I phoned a friend of mine who is a crime-story addict and asked for a comment. “The number of Inspector Singhs does seem to be expanding exponentially,” she said.

At current rates of growth, she added, the Indian detective will be featured in every book in the world by 2037.

I visualized a future bestseller list.

6. Harry Potter and the Sikh Policeman.

5. The Da Vinci Curry.

4. The Audacity of Singh.

3. Tuesdays with the Inspector.

2. Marley, Me and the Indian Guy.

1. A Thousand Splendid Singhs.
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Where will Inspector Singh pop up next?

I can’t say for sure.

But I have a feeling that somewhere in Hollywood, James Cameron is pacing around the room, trying desperately to think of a story for a follow-up to Avatar.

Frustrated, he takes a break and phones his ex-wife for advice.

“I’m trying to concentrate on Jake Sully and the Na’vi people, but I keep seeing a fat Indian policeman in the background,” he laments.

 

Technorati Tags: Inspector Singh,Vikram Chandra,Shamini Flint,Nury Vittachi,Feng shui detective,crime fiction,asian crime fiction

Comments

[Karuna]

Thoughts are not your thoughts !

[Solomon]

"There is nothing new under the sun. I said it 2000 years ago and it is still true." -- Book of Ecclesiastes

[Inspector Singh]

I plan to take over this column as well as all the fiction books in the world, so kindly step aside. I am almost ready.

[Angela]

Many moons ago I was a young and innocent student of advertising. For a class project, I enthusiastically presented my idea for an ad campaign of an airline. It was junked by my instructor right in front of the class. This respected expert told me that my proposal is "worthless". Not only was I crushed, I was also embarrassed in front of my peers. (sigh! drama!)

Barely a week later, I was waiting for my train to go to school and when it arrived, my "worthless" idea was all over the train. A new ad campaign for an airline. The concept and execution is exactly as in my proposal. I thought I was having a nightmare. When I got to class that day my classmates asked if I had seen the new ad on the train, and isn't it funny how similar it was to my project last week? I was too stunned to even think. Later I found out the instructor is an executive at the ad agency that launched this campaign for the airline which is their client. So he had milked his students to come up with ideas which he pitched to the client. That was the day I lost my innocence and whatever respect I had for this advertising exec.

But life goes on and I moved on. I came accross this in one of my readings: Ideas never really belong to anyone. Ideas float in the ether and sometimes when your mind is tuned to the right frequency, you pick up this idea. So perhaps or it is really possible that more than one person's mind were tuned to the right frequency at the same time or about the same time and they all picked up the same idea. Or that's how I console myself :-)

[Nury]

Angela, I am constantly amazed at how mature you are. I always think of you as a PYT (pretty young thing) and then you come out with these tales which show how intelligent you are.

I agree that sometimes ideas are stolen, sometimes they occur to two people at the same time -- and i also agree that it's usually not worth fighting, either way.

So I hope that Ms Rowling agrees with you and me, when she sees my highly original new book, "The Return of Harry Potter".

[Foxlore]

@Angela

Your story reminds me of a comedy film I just watched called Gentlemen Broncos, a story about a kid who has his story stolen by a professional writer.

Sadly I think that the business of plagiarism is all too alive in creative industries and I have friends who share similar tales to yours.

[fardel]

@Angela
You cannot fight this, but a good kick in the balls,would readjust the concept of fairness.
20 years ago , i made an audio tape about aviation communication around this area for my students:
Air controllers being form different origins, their accent and speech was different from one airport to the next and sometimes difficult to understand to " foreign" pilots flying in our neighborhood.
a tourist bought one copy and sold it as an add-on ,on flight simulator;
i am still looking for the guy.

There is an old say:
"the monkey imitate the man" ( or the woman in your case)

[Lurker]

I hope one day to read a character about Lift Inspector Singh.

Angela, if the ad appeared only one week after you submitted, more likely the exec idea was beaten by another ad exec in the same company. Thats why he was pissed.

[Karuna]

@Nury, Warner bothers sued a Bollywood movie "Hari Puttar", since it sounds similar to "Harry Potter". The case was thrown out by the court.

@Angela, you are also just a thought.

[Christy]

Lord of the Singhs

Gone with the Turban

[Foxlore]

Speaking of Singhs and Karuna's idea that we are 'just a thought', I recall this scene from the local HK movie Himalaya Singh (喜馬拉亞星) where the title character is assigned to Brahma (the baby) who creates the universe in his dream. Singh accidentally wakes him from his dream...thus ending the universe.

[Karuna]

sound like an interesting movie. Thanks Foxlore

[Mahjuja]

Anyone here know abt the bollywood movie Singh is King?:D

[Angela]

Karuna, that's what I thought.

'I thought i taw a putty tat but it watnt a putty tat...'
-tweety

[farah]

inspector singh?? really?? but i thought they are only used as characters for sardarji jokes.

[sibz]

im not sure if you guys have read matthew reilley's "seven wonders of the ancient world" and the sequels to that (6 something and 5 something, cant remember the titles) but they feature an arabian man who is sorta like an SAS- he had a beard and a pot belly too, but he is great at his job and manages to avoid death a few times. coincidence? :P

[Chamin]

Angela,

What happened to your idea happened to many others I know, during the short time I lived in Singapore.

[andrew]

there are more Singh's in bollywoood...

there is an inspector Singh in Sholay !