Bubun: The Junior Detective I Story By Shampayan, 11, Kolkata

Bubun: The Junior Detective

Bubun was a class VI student. He was very popular in his school and his family due to his several good habits and talents. He always used to secure 1st position in all the exams, was a good quiz master, and was also a good cricketer. His hobby was reading storybooks, especially thriller stories and his special attraction was birds. He used to record different types of bird sounds. Once he got a tape recorder from his maternal uncle, who stayed in the USA. Bubun was so excited to have this recorder, which can record sounds up to 24 hours.

That day was Friday; Bubun had his inter-school cricket tournament, so he got up a little bit early and quickly got ready. The match was far from the city and there was a big lake near the playground where different kinds of birds used to come in winter, so Bubun thought to carry his tape recorder with him so that he could record some of the bird’s sounds in between the  matches. Bubun along with his teammates reached the playground at 9 am. The match was scheduled to start at 10 am, so after a small warmup, Bubun went to the side of the playground where small bushes were there. He sometimes sat there with the recorder to hear and record some sounds of birds. In the meantime, Bubun’s school won the toss and they decided to bat first. Bubun was the opening batsman of his team so he had to leave for the playground. He kept the tape recorder inside the bush so that nobody could see that.

  The match started, and Bubun and the other opener, Sougata, were playing well. But Bubun was not able to give his full attention to the match as he was a bit worried about the tape recorder, especially after seeing two men sitting just near the bush. Due to his lack of concentration, he made a mistake, which Sougata dismissed as a run-out. After this, Bubun tried to concentrate on the play and just forget about the tape recorder. He made an undefeated century and his team scored 230 in 25  overs. After the innings, he rushed to the bush and did not find anyone; however, his tape recorder was safe. He took it and put it into his kit bag. After lunch again, the match started. The opponent team got all-out in 20 overs with only 150 runs on the board. Bubun was declared man of the match due to his century.

Evening Bubun came back home and took his snacks and was lying on his bed when suddenly the tape recorder came to his mind. He took it out and played; initially, initially 20-30 minutes, there were several sounds of the birds, but after that, he heard a discussion between two people; they were planning to rob a bank. Understanding the importance of the recording, Bubun went to his father and told him all. One of the friends of his father, Mrinmoy uncle, was in the police and Bubun also liked him. Bubun’s father called his friend and told the incident. Mrinmoy uncle assured him to meet Bubun on the next day, i.e., Saturday.

                  Saturday morning, Mrinmoy uncle visited Bubun’s house and heard all the discussion of the robbers. It was clear they were planning to loot the bank on the coming Monday as Saturday and Sunday were holidays. Mrinmoy uncle took the recorder from Bubun and assured him he would get back to Bubun on Monday evening with all the updates.

                   Generally on Sunday Bubun used to study more to complete all his pending lessons of the last week, but that Sunday was a bit different; he was a bit tensed about the robbery going to happen the next day. Similarly, on Monday also, Bubun did not go to school as he was not able to concentrate on anything. He was so stressed; however, in the afternoon, around 2 pm, his father called Bubun to tell him the operation was successful; both the robbers were arrested and he also informed him that Mrinmoy uncle would come in the evening to their house to let him know all the details. Bubun was a bit relaxed knowing that. In the evening, Mrinmoy uncle came to Bubun’s house with a big cake. He narrated all the events to Bubun and told him the local police station had arranged a small party on Wednesday for Bubun, as for him only they could have traced this gang of robbers. Bubun and his family were so delighted to know that.

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