The Mystery Of Talking Portrait

Once upon a time, there lived twin sisters namely Jinu and Jamie. They were journalists by profession. In the summer months of May, they get a new assignment in Mysore regarding an old mansion that suddenly burst into flames.No casualties were reported. The "J" sisters were also amateur detectives and had helped the city police in solving many unsolved crimes over time.

Jamie and Jinu were more than happy to take up this new assignment. They packed up their bags, and new gadgets and set off to the said place. It was a two-hour journey from their hometown, Bangalore.

By night the sisters reached the newspaper office and got settled in the room assigned to them.

After the long drive, they decided to return to bed soon and start up their investigation the next day.

Early morning, the Bangalore Times editor called on them and introduced them to Miss. Tina, who agreed to be their local guide. After a delicious breakfast of Idlis, sambhar and Kesari bath, and a masala chai , the trio started off to the site where the fire mishap happened. The said mansion was an off-road away from the city limits, a picturesque locality, the area was cordoned off by the police. However, Jamie had taken prior permission from the city police commissioner.

They started to view the surroundings. It was reported that "nakshatra mansion", as was its name ,suddenly burst into flames in the early hours of last week. This mansion was a century old which housed many antique properties, portraits. Built-in old colonial style, it has survived the fire with no major damages. The fire was doused by fire engines and the posh neighbourhood people in a timely way.

It had three floors, with chandlers hanging, old Persian colourful glasses, porcelain crockery, silver decorations. Wooden panelling everywhere. After an hour of sleuthing Jamie stumbled upon a broken locket, an old diary , few smoked cigarettes, and an one year old news paper cutting.The entire mansion was decorated with paintings of various genres.There was indeed a room filled with portraits of various famous personalities. They were of such originality that Jinu was awestruck at its beauty. One particular painting of an old Raja drew Jinu's attention. Grandeur of that Raja was such that she wished if she could be transferred to that era!!!.

Miss Tina informed them that at the time of fire, a young girl of 22 was living all alone there.After the accident, she had moved to her friend's house at seringapatnam, 30 km from Mysore.

The girls name was Lakshmi, and she had inherited that mansion from her grandfather who was a artist in the royal family of Wodeyars- the Mysore royal family.

Lakshmi's grandpa was a renowned artist all around the globe.He has been recognised for his artisic paintings by old British people, and has won appreciation of Raja Ravi Varma as well. Her parents were working abroad and she had just came back to her home town for a short vacation.

After carefully placing the collected clues in a separate waterproof packets, they decided to visit the neighbour hood. Mrs. and Mr. Nair briefed the event bur commented upon a strange 'cooing' sound an hour before the fire broke off. After this the trio went to have lunch at a local restaurant . Bisilbillibath and tamarind rice were their lunch for the day.

'J' girls thanked Tina for accompanying them. The sisters planned for sightseeing to Mysore zoo that afternoon and also invited Tina to their room for dinner that night. They also decided to pay a visit to Miss Lakshmi the next day for collecting first hand information.

Jamie purchased a couple of tickets at the entrance and proceeded into the zoological park. Various birds, animals, made that area colourful. Jinu and Jamie were moving towards the enclosure that housed white tigers when they noticed something fishy. A crowd of tourist were surrounding them, but the one looker standing beside Jinu started creating a commotion by shouting in a strange language. He was dressed in colourful shirt, dangling earrings, a Veerappan moustache and looked like a nomad. In a fraction of second,Jinu's mobile phone was stolen from her handbag. Stunned for a moment she started chasing that man but couldn't find him. After informing the security guards the nice trip to zoo came to an abrupt end the sisters returned to their car in the parking lot. They returned to their room and after a hot shower , started preparing dinner of toasted bread .Tina was prompt for dinner. She drove in by 8 0' clock sharp. After dinner, they started discussing the clues collected. While searching the handbag,Jinu came across an envelope addressed to her. Strange as it seems, inside it was a white paper with typewritten words-

"Leave this case for good- Danger lurks in nakshatra mansion!"

Now J sisters came to the conclusion that they are investigating in the right direction. The broken locket had initials as "A K" etched in it. Old news paper cutting had an article about a JUMBO circus which happened in Kerala an year back in the city of Calicut.They also called and informed police commissioner about the progress of far, the stolen mobile and the anonymous envelope with the threatening note.

The next morning the J sisters and Tina started off to meet Lakshmi at Seringapatna in their blue Amaze car.They would have covered 10km when they noticed a black open jeep following them. They couldn't read its number plate as it was covered in mud. It was also emitting thick clouds of smoke…The driver was wearing a hat that covered almost his face. As luck would have it, a trailer came in between both of them and the jeep lost trail of them.Within one hour, they were at seringapatna , and was welcomed by Lakshmi. A tall, fair lean girl, with hair pleated behind and tied in a blue ribbon. A scent of some perfume filled the hair. She looked attractive in her salwar except for dark circles around her eyes. It indicated that she wasn't sleeping well lately.

Lakshmi started explaining the accident…She was getting ready for sleep that day..when electricity went off all of a sudden.Though the mansion had a good generator back up, it didn't start. It was then that she started smelling smoke and spotted fire in the adjacent roof.she told that the mansion had numerous paintings painted by painter grandfather, some of them which were priceless. Lakshmi described in detail how her grandpa was the most sought after painter who worked loyally for the royal family of Wodeyars. He had also received many awards across the globe.

Mr. Chitrappa, who was Lakshmi's grandpa was a master in making portraits. He had made hundreds of portraits of then Mysore ruler,Krishnaraja Wodeyar, old British chiefs and other rulers.

Chitrappa had mastered a rare talent of making TALKING PORTAITs- Paintings made with special inks when aligned in specific timings of day to sunlight would emit sound waves which matches the speech frequency of the person in the portrait. Chitrappa had gained great renown for this talent alone. Various foreigners visited him and appreciated him.

Nakshatra mansion was indeed gifted to Chitrappa by then Mysore ruler for making that Raja's talking portrait. It was also told that king gave him some priceless diamonds but nobody knows where it is now. In last audit at the palace, that particular talking potrait was found missing from palace gallery- This was a new lead point indeed!. The palace authorities never reported this to police as it would mean lapse in the security measures. Only concerned people and Lakshmi knew about it. This gave J sisters a new target also- to find the missing portrait and restore it as well.Lakshmi requested J sisters their help and hinted that the fire at the mansion and portrait theft could be linked.. She also said that her parents and herself otherwise had no known enemies. However it was told in the olden times that the priceless diamonds which Chitrappa received, was never seen and rajah's portrait market value was worth billions.

J sisters thanked Lakshmi for her warm hospitality and promised to help her in all ways.Lakshmi has returned to Mysore with idea of converting the mansion to an art gallery of her grandpas paintings and open it to the outside world.It was then that fire accident took place.Anyways as luck would have it , not many paintings were damaged in that fire.

Jinu and Jamie decided to go through that old diary thoroughly for any possible clues that evening, also Jamie's old classmate was an audiologist who knew about sound frequencies. For some time pass, J sisters decided to visit Tipu sultan's palace nearby.They had a nice picnic. While strolling through the palace, something caught Jinu's attention- "A K Perfumes"- A small shop that sold various attar and home made perfumes and roll ons…The shopkeeper, Mr. Arnold Khurana told he was running that shop for past 25 years . He also said he was family friends with Lakshmi and her parents. It struck a cord in Jinu – could he be connected to A.K initial in that broken locket. Mr.Khurana told that he was aware of them handling this case…..that seemed strange as Lakshmi told no one even her room mate is not aware of this.However J sisters kept their suspicion to their minds.

Afternoon, Jamie got dressed herself in a sky blue hand embroidered top with a contrasting red skirt for her meeting with old classmate Mr.Anand, audiologist. Jinu was busy reading the evening newspaper during the short drive to his residence at Vijayanagara housing street. An advertisement about a new circus carnival which was about to start in Mysore after a couple of days caught her attention. It reminded her of the old newspaper which they found in nakshatra mansion ,which also was about an old circus in Calicut, Kerala. Could it just be a coincidence? However she brushed aside her thoughts and enjoyed the scenery through the car window. The city was busy with local commuters, tourists walking randomly.

Mr. Anand welcomed the girls in his residence, a nice two storey building  with a warm smile. He had changed a lot since they last met in high school. Dressed in a black sweater and a nice pashmina shawl around his neck, he was a joyful person. Coming into the main discussion, they started reading the old diary in his reading room, written in old script with a fountain pen , they figured that it belonged to Mr.Chitrappa.  After the initial pages, they found something breath taking!!.

The art of reading talking portrait was described in that.

Some strange symbols, wave length of light along certain colours were described in that..

Being more than 100 years old , some letters have faded ,Mr. Anand was trying to read with a magnifying glasses..Chitrappa had described a special room in the second floor of the building especially designed where at early morning hours and at noon sun-rays would enter in east , north east direction in particular angulations… It became clear that that was his work room and by exposing his art to sunlight at that specific timings , the paintings would emit the sound waves.

It would appear as if the person in portrait was talking.However through this painting technology, only 10 – 15 sentences could only be emitted.The sentences were secretly coded using special inks in a unique configuration across the canvas.

The trio was so amazed by the findings they came across. At this point Anand suddenly interrupted Jamie who was reading this aloud and said during his audiology course, he had learnt about Mr.Chitrappa's paintings and done short-term research on him. As far as he knows, these sound frequencies would also be emitted if paintings were exposed to artificial lasers of the modern world.

About 100 years ago, lasers were not there but now it was possible but required expertise. It just reminded Anand of a miniature painting of Chitrappa which he bought for his research purpose from an antique dealer. He got up from his wooden easy chair made in teak and went upstairs to get it.

Meanwhile, J sisters started reading the diary further. There was a chapter which explained the day when he was awarded the diamonds by Krishna Raja Wodeyar. There go his words……….

"………Late at night, I returned to my home near Jaganmohan Palace, content. As local dacoits are haunting the nearby Chenpatna and Maddur districts, I wanted to store my gifts at a secret locality. Fearing theft, I decided to store it in a secret locker. The password for the locker was a secret sentence and that it was a sound lock………….." J sisters found their heartbeat taking a leap. Could it be a lead point to the long-lost treasure of diamonds? By this time Anand has joined them in reading, he showed them the painting he bought and they decided to do the light experiment on it later.

It was a painting of a young girl gazing at the stars!

The trio now eagerly turned to the next chapter… It revealed that Chitrappa had made a twin painting of the Krishnaraja Wodeyar, very much like the one he gifted to King himself, However, this twin painting was made with ink in such a way that when exposed to sunlight it emits 10 sentences in the voice of King- BUT IT WAS A PART OF PASSWORD TO DIAMONDS. The second half of the password was hidden in the talking portrait of Chitrappa himself which he had drawn himself!!!

Hence the whole password could be obtained when the portraits of Rajah and Chitrappa were exposed to sunlight simultaneously!!.

It was something very similar to the present-day 2-step authentications and verification of passwords! Just thinking that such artistic sophistication existed a century ago gave them goosebumps!!.. Unfortunately, they found that the next many pages were missing from the diary…in fact, torn from it..probably someone took it on purpose...

Happy that they got a valid lead, they now tried to experiment with mini art with green laser, as luck would have it soft mumbling words of a little girl singing twinkle twinkle little star rhyme emitted from it …. So astounding….

Eagerly Jamie called Lakshmi and briefed about the proceedings in the case and findings from diary…

At this time Lakshmi told that there was huge portrait of her grandpa, which her grandpa made as his last painting a few days before he died. It was kept in his work room cum bed room in second floor. They decided to go the mansion the very next day and hunt for clues. Lakshmi also told that before her grandparents moved into nakshatra mansion, they lived in a small cottage near Jagan Mohan palace. No one is living there except for a Gardner who cleaned it regularly . It also has a good number of paintings by her grandpa..

They decided to go to go to the mansion ,the old cottage the next day as it was getting late now. Lakshmi agreed to meet them the other day and Anand also promised to join them .

By the Anand prepared evening tea for the girls.He also invited them to join him to see the famous music and light show at Mysore palace that evening, a real attraction to the tourists visiting Mysore. J girls were really excited over this and they drove over to the venue. With great pomp and show the music and light show was conducted which they enjoyed a lot…At the end there was an advertisement and announcement about a grand laser show at Vrindavan gardens as part of Circus show. Now bell was ringing in the young minds… could laser show be connected to portrait mystery?

In that gallery of viewers , Arnold Khurana was spotted looking curiously at the girls, he got up from his seat ,came over to girls and extended a bunch of tickets to them and invited them for this said laser show. A.K said that the circus was run by his best friend , a master of laser show and renowned ring master Suresh Goel. This sounded fishy, but they readily accepted it.The show was at 6p.m the next day. Anand drove the girls to their room and promised to meet them the next day.

Lakshmi and Anand were prompt to meet J girls and after quick introductions, the four of them reached the mansion..The started sleuthing and in the second floor room and found out the painting of grandpa. As luck would have it was in its place..Now from his home near Jagan Mohan palace shockingly the second drawing of Rajah was missing..They also found that the caretaker cum Gardner was missing..After alerting the City commissioner, the group proceeded to laser show at Vrindavan gardens.. The pieces of Puzzle was now starting to fall into place.. J sisters were expecting to catch the thief red handed at circus..

After they arrived at the venue of circus, Immersed at beauty of Vrindavan gardens even at the crucial time, Lakshmi started walking towards the carnival just to view the exhibits. Suddenly, she spotted a framed portrait at display…That was one of her grandpa that was stolen from cottage. Curious, she grabbed Jamie's hand and started looking for the person in charge. Meanwhile, a few metres away, Jinu, Anand had started following Arnold Khurana who was dressed in black safari suit. In a fraction of second, they were grabbed from behind by a couple of people wearing bandannas over their face.They screamed for help but in vain as there was a loud noise around the circus tents. They were dragged into a room in the back stage, blindfolded and were locked inside.

But Jinu who was an expert at knots managed to open hers and Anand's ties loose and decided to search in the dark room for a way of escape.

BANG! Followed that there was a loud cooing sound, just like how it was heard before fire in mansion.Without any reason , Anand and Jinu started feeling dizzy,nauseating and disoriented.Frantic for help, started banging the door and searching the room.

On the other side of ground,Lakshmi and Jamie were looking for Jinu and Anand.They found both of their phones near some bushes where there was commotion.Smelling danger,they immediately called the city commissioner of police.

In a panic to find their friends, Lakshmi noticed someone calling out her name.. It was the old caretaker of her family, who has been absconding since the fire accident, she saw him waving at them and calling them inside the shed at the back stage. Un aware of the danger, they followed him. The were grabbed and thrown inside the same room. Now the door opened… Three men wearing respirators entered the room … The four youngsters now started identifying them.One was AK, the second was Suresh Goel and the other was Sankaranna, the care taker. Jamie could identify Suresh Goel as the nomadic person who stole her mobile.With an ugly smirk on his face, he said that carbon monoxide(CO) was slowly being let into the room in order kill them .That explained the disorientation experienced by Anand and Jinu.

Hoping that some help would arrive, In an attempt to buy some time, Jamie lied to the villains that she had already found the diamonds. To this they were taken aback.However CO was slowly beginning to fill the room, BANG !! HANDS UP!! HANDS up!! The police have finally surrounded them They nabbed the villains and all four of them were rescued and rushed to hospital.

Confessions were made . After a short stay at hospital, J sisters,Anand and Lakshmi were all right!

Police handed over the stolen portrait to Lakshmi, which they recovered from Suresh Goel ,who was the master planner.He had a secret businesses of smuggling antique paintings to Britain. He somehow came to know about Chitrappa , and in order to find the hidden diamonds and to unravel the password had broken into the mansion that day. He was also an expert in handling lasers, after finding the required portrait old diary with the methods written, he somehow wanted to get rid off Lakshmi by poisoning her with Carbon monoxide.He had opened the pipeline which produced"cooing" sound but accidentally broke out at mansion and Lakshmi had a narrow escape that day. The original Krishnaraja painting worth billions was recovered from Arnold khurana's residence. The department of Police thanked J girls in solving the mystery.

With the two portraits recovered, Four of them rushed to the mansion and to Chitrappa's room in the second floor. Jinu started aligning Rajas and Chitrappa's portrait to sunlight which entered the room through an opening and Persian glass, the wooden pieces carved opening in the wall. For few seconds nothing happened, CRICK…CRICK…CLING… There came an low pitched sound emitted out of both paintings, it said "Peace to the world where sympathy and compassion prevails" It was in a voice of both Chitrappa and Krishnaraja!!! It was indeed the password too!!!

Suddenly a secret drawer popped out of his working table , Jamie took it out and behind it was a secret compartment .They couldn't believe their eyes!! In a pouch was sparkling diamonds!!

Thus the mystery which was a century old was solved. Lakshmi thanked J girls and Anand wholeheartedly. Next morning newspaper carried the headlines: "Mystery of talking portraits unravelled"!!