Remembering S.C. Bedi, the Creator of the Rajan-Iqbal Series

My high school days growing up in the small town of Supaul in northern Bihar in the late 1990s were witness to a craze for comics among my contemporaries. Characters like Goga, Doda and Nagraj engrossed my classmates’ imagination and the long waiting lists at book shops across town that rented out these comics were a testimony to their popularity.

Unlike my peers however, this craze had yet to catch up with me. Not that I disliked reading comics per se, but characters like Goga, Doda and Nagraj did not catch my attention – presumably for how ‘alien’ they looked. It was very difficult for me to relate to them, apart from the fact that they were often filled with mindless violence.

Nagraj is a fictional superhero created in the late 1980s by Sanjay Gupta for Raj Comics.

Hence, the only series in the comic book world that I preferred reading were those that featured Chacha Chaudhary and Sabu – a creation of cartoonist Pran Kumar Sharma, better known as Pran.

What did catch my attention and keep me spell bound were the pocket books or novellas of the Rajan-Iqbal series. These were a part of the ‘Bal-Secret Agent 999’ series, a creation of Lucknow-based author S.C. Bedi.

Bedi breathed his last on November 1, 2019 at the age of 74. He is credited to have authored nearly 1,200 novellas.

Such was my craze of reading the Rajan-Iqbal series that I finished reading all the novellas (around 60) of the series available in my hometown. Not only that, for the sake of memorabilia, I must admit that I haven’t returned at least two or three copies to the bookstore that I took them on loan from. They lie tucked away safely at my home in Bihar.

My love for Rajan-Iqbal and the other characters who featured in the stories – Salma, Shobha and Inspector Balbir – stayed steady for several reasons. What initially drew me to them were their names – they sounded real. Unlike ‘alien’ characters like Nagraj, Goga and the lot, the names and places which featured in these novellas were not entirely unfamiliar.

The other reason I fell head over heels and connected with Bedi’s works was the fact that the characters were probably around the same age as I was. They would indulge in insignificant conversations as a person of my age would, or behave and joke in a manner which was not very far from my imagination and a part of my daily lexicon.

S.C. Bedi. Photo: iNext

Moreover, the stories were filled up with comedy and love. The conversations and fights between Rajan and Iqbal with their girlfriends Shobha and Salma were another source of attraction for teenage readers like me. Their romance was something we that we would dream of having in our life, as teenagers oft do.

They were unlike the superficial and filmy stories that there was an abundance of, and were more grounded and life-like.

While it would be incorrect to say that these stories were  completely devoid of violence, whatever there was was used with  restraint. Solving crime involved the intellect more often than the use of force and coercion that Bollywood contemporaries or Nagraj and Doga were prone to. There was also an underlying emphasis on respect for the rule of law and communal harmony.

According to a report on Bedi, this was deliberate on the part of the author. It is said that this is why he wrote stories that included a positive representation of different communities.

In an interview with Zeba Hasan for iNext in 2012, Bedi had quite categorically said that he wanted his readers (teenagers) to be brave and what he aimed to impart from the beginning was to send a message of braveness, communal harmony and unity in diversity.

In hindsight, one realises how important these messages were. It is undeniable that reading his stories while growing up helped shape my worldview in a big way. I also started harbouring ambitions of becoming a detective, a dream I never could realise in real life.

But thanks to the Rajan-Iqbal series, I developed a fondness for reading detective novels written by Ibn-e-Safi in Urdu, and it wouldn’t be an understatement to say that his novellas also helped me develop a keen interest in books. In fact, my recent penchant for watching detective TV serials such as Byomkesh Bakshi and Sherlock Holmes also arises from my love for this genre that the Bedi novellas first ignited.

Also read: Farewell, Stan Lee, the True Marvel of the Comic Book World

It is unfortunate that there isn’t much available about Bedi – either online or offline – and his novellas are out of print. I have made efforts to procure them whenever possible, but most of such efforts have been in vain. Wheeler stalls, small town book-stores, wholesale book shops that sell Diamond and Raj comics – all have proved unfruitful. I have even scoured the old book markets of Delhi, Patna, Ranchi and Lucknow without much success. Libraries too, I must add, have been a disappointment as far as finding these novellas are concerned.

The limited luck, much to my whimsical happiness, extended to the one novella (Qahar ki Devi 2) of the original Rajan-Iqbal series that I managed to lay my hands on.

It becomes imperative to mention that this lone possession was very much from the the original series, as owing to the huge popularity of the series, several publications published similar titles and even went to the extent of using his name. One remembers how every copy of an original S.C. Bedi novella had an explanation on the back cover on how to differentiate between original and fake Rajan-Iqbal series.

There has been an attempt to revive his style of writing by one Shubhanand in recent years, but so far, it doesn’t quite match the craft and brilliance that Bedi exhibited.

Just recently, I had thought about meeting the writer during a next visit to Lucknow. But that dream, much like my dream of becoming a detective, will forever remain unfulfilled.