What you do in this world is a matter of no consequence.

The question is what you can make people believe you have done. (STUD)

Mumbai, India 24 August 2013 Poolside, VITS Business Hotel, Andheri Annual Meet #1, Sherlock Holmes Society of India Lunch Meet We met. We ate. We left. We inspected the venue and discussed arrangements for the next day with the hotel staff. We chatted about Holmes and pretty much everything under the sun.

We had these nice wristbands.

We also talked of commitments and not honouring them.

Mumbai, India 25 August 2013 Coral, VITS Business Hotel, Andheri Annual Meet #1, Sherlock Holmes Society of India The day began with a lot of expectations and optimism.

Sumalji (Comdt. Sumal Surendranath, President, Sherlock Holmes Society of India) turned up an hour and a half earlier to start receiving guests. The Professor (Professor Venugopal Bhaskaran Nair) turned up early, too. Wonderful, wonderful people.

This was the room. Looks good, yes?

We wrote it up nicely.

The Plaque We started with the lovely plaque sent in by Mr. Kumar Bhatia, one of our stalwart members, and his speech in absentia. (The full speech will be available in the next issue of Proceedings of the Pondicherry Lodge.) The plaque:

Sumalji with the plaque:

Posing with the plaque do note Bhatiajis speech visible in the background:

The Letter from Scandalous Bohemia Then we moved on the wonderful letter sent to us for the occasion by Mr. Ales Kolodrubec, the President of the Czech Sherlock Holmes Society. (Again, the letter will be published in the next issue of Proceedings of the Pondicherry Lodge.)

Sumalji and the Professor with the letter:

We are very, very proud to be associated with you, Ales. Thank you very, very much. The Video from a Sherlock Holmes Author Next, we had a very charming video made for us by Mr. Luke Benjamen Kuhns the author of several Sherlock Holmes books. The Solved Problem is my personal favourite though its a tough choice between that and his graphic novel.

Speaking of which, heres the cover of Lukes new graphic novel. I cant wait!

Thank you, Luke, for the lovely video, and for helping us out at the eleventh hour and we hope to keep seeing many, many more of your books in the market! The Holmes Mania Quotient Test A presentation was made:

In accordance with the presentation, Holmes Mania Quotient (HMQ) was tested. (Ill put up the presentation sometime; the test will probably feature in the next issue of Proceedings of the Pondicherry Lodge.)

According to his HMQ score, Sumalji suffers from StockHolmes Syndrome and to alleviate his symptoms, his treatment regime requires this:

According to his HMQ score, the Professor was diagnosed with Holmesickness, and his medication was this mini-detective kit:

I didnt test mine I devised the test and the conditions; it wouldnt be fair. A couple of other people tested positive for Sherlocked. The spouse is Holmesick. (Sumalji, the Professor and I feel this should be a recognised illness for a sick-leave application.) The only other person to have seen the presentation is The Scholar in London (Mr. Tom Ue), who has been very, very kind and helpful with the organisation of the event but I dont think he has the score-sheet yet. (Reminder: Must get his score.) Lunch We took a break for lunch.

All fed and watered.

BBC Sherlock A Study in Pink Then we screened A Study in Pink to an engrossed room.

The Road Ahead Finally, we discussed the issues that were to be discussed (presentation will be put up later) took some tough decisions: 1. The Annual Meet of the Sherlock Holmes Society of India will be held every year on the fourth weekend of August. No deviations except force majeure. 2. The location will be decided by the Executive Committee, which, for now, consists of Sumalji, the Professor and I. 3. The Sherlock Holmes Society of India will be formalised and registered, with proper constitutional documents. If you are interested in helping with this, get in touch with the EC. 4. We need some responsible members for different executive functions Sumalji and I cant do everything. If you think youre good, responsible and have a sense of commitment towards SHSI, tell us. 5. You can show us your commitment by participating the upcoming events: a. The winter issue of Proceedings of the Pondicherry Lodge, set for a December 1, 2013 launch b. Scripting a play (in coordination with CalcuttaWalks) on Sherlock Holmes in Kolkata c. Preparing a book for the 160th birthday of Sherlock Holmes on January 6, 2014 6. The Sherlock Holmes Society of Londons trip to India has been cancelled, so there is nothing to be done at that front at the moment.

And so it ends...

And then, we bid adieu and returned home with mixed feelings the euphoria of actually having the event (we were a part of history...if we think of it that way, it feels good) being tainted with the en masse absence of people who committed (Et tu, Brute? Then fall, Caesar!), then the pleasure of seeing new people who happened to be in the hotel for other conferences/parties come up to us to find out more about what we were doing, and then staying back...and finally, our departure with not a small amount of exhaustion (As Sumalji and I now know, it is extraordinarily difficult to remote-organise an event and plan it down to details. Just take the conference folders it took me close to three months endless research at ungodly hours of the morning to gather everything in that pack.) and, obviously, much lighter pockets. Conclusion Was it a success? Not really, no though we did get several new people interested in our society. Was it a disaster? No. Was it nice? Yes even feeling disappointed and betrayed as we did it was a real pleasure to meet Sumalji and the Professor and Id do it again in a heartbeat. It was lovely how Sherlockians across the world marshalled around to help us out and we are very, very grateful to every single one of them. Did it yield results? Yes. We learnt some very important lessons. We took some much-needed decisions. After-thoughts Nearly forgot the mugs and bumper-stickers that were promised to the speakers and the organisation committee:

A very eminent British Sherlockian called the mugs handsome and Im actually quite happy with how they turned out. Sumalji and the Professor liked them. And here comes the lovely gift from the Professor:

He got Sumalji a Sherlock Holmes publication in Malayalam, but unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture of that. Sumalji will put it up, no doubt!

There is nothing more stimulating than a case where everything goes against you. (HOUN)