Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Indian Vampire


The recent surge of interest in Sherlock Holmes (seen via recent books and movies) reminded me of my own memories about the star detective. When the TV series came on Doordarshan I was too young to understand any of it. Later when I was older, my dad bought me the entire Holmes collection. Even though half the stories had references to all kinds of ancient British terms that made no sense to me, I read on. The idea that people the victims knew (like their step-father) could put on a wig and some makeup and yet fool them completely seemed very far-fetched (note that such great makeup was a recurring theme in many of the stories) but I thought, hey, if everyone else who read the books considered it believable, maybe makeup could be that good.

Looking back, I think back then I was like the crowd in that fairy tale about the emperor’s new clothes, you know one of those guys who just like whatever it is that is acclaimed! Or to quote the wise Calvin who told Hobbes, “You know how people are. They only recognize greatness when some authority confirms it.”

A couple of weeks back, I ran into a scenario which reminded me of a Sherlock Holmes case that I genuinely like, The Adventure of the Sussex Vampire. In that case, a woman is found sucking blood from the neck of her infant (which is how the case got its name). The solution to that case? Turned out that the baby was being poisoned by his jealous (and psycho) step-brother, and the all the mother was doing was sucking the poison out of her baby. Now imagine this: a few weeks back, you’d have found my wife sucking blood out of our baby’s little finger. Guess what the solution to that mystery was? I had accidentally nicked my baby daughter while cutting her nails. The nicked skin bled and so my wife put the baby's bleeding finger in her mouth and sucked, the way adults do when we bleed!

Sometimes truth is just as strange as fiction. In case you are interested, you can read the Arthur Conan Doyle story for free on the net since its copyright expired ages back.

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