The Young Reporter Detective

During my teenage years, I was a die hard fan of Tin Tin, the young reporter detective and his pet dog snowy. The other characters in their adventure stories, Captain Haddock, detective twins Thomson and Thompson were equally adorable. These character creation by Belgian author Herge made him immortal.

There was a conference in India at one time on reporters and detectives and Tintin was an invitee. He came to attend along with his pet snowy. At that time news about him was all over the press. I religiously followed his itinerary and his engagements.

I was such a staunch follower that I read all his adventure story books published till that time. Although his books were very expensive at that time but I took all efforts to acquire them to read.

A rich Prince from the erstwhile state of Rajputana had a meeting with Tintin and discussed with him some problem of his. From the papers we came to know that the Prince had a costly ruby in his collection and now the precious stone was missing. The Prince had taken out a insurance for the priceless collection for a big amount. But the insurance company was expressing doubt about security of the stone and was not willing to honour the claim stating foul play.

The insurance company had also asked Tintin separately and employed him to conduct a security audit.

Tintin took the case on himself and cabled his friends to come and assist him. In a few days Captain Haddock and Thompson and Thomson joined Tintin. 

Tintin and his team were facing difficulty to manage the heat and dust of the environment in India. But Tintin was tremendously co

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mmitted to his work. 

Thompson and Thomson were trying their detective orthodox bookish knowledge to make headway into the case. But most of the time they would bump against each other with their pet dialogue 'precisely', and their time would pass without much result. 

Captain Haddock would assist Tintin when his call for duty would arise. Otherwise he would be sipping his large beer filled mug and showering curses on everything from mosquitoes to every man on the street with his pet words 'Blistening Barnacles'. 

After facing initial difficulties then, Tintin made headway in the case. 

The Prince had actually deposited the precious ruby with a bank and was safely deposited in it's vault. Another identical ruby but not original the Prince had kept to himself so that he could see it when he wanted to. This was an inexpensive stone and this was missing for a few days. The Prince had forgotten this duplicate stone's whereabouts. Nor any of his employees could give a clue. The insurance company was relieved to know that the original stone was safely in the bank's vault. 

Tintin continued with the search now for the duplicate stone that was not pricey. 

Further few days later it came to light that a film company had borrowed the stone for the use in one of it's upcoming films. The paperwork that the film company had done with the Prince was found in the archives of the Prince's lawyer. 

The case solved. The press was all in praise of the mind work of Tintin. 

I recalled the story from my memory and enjoyed my Hero's success.