Considering the detective fictions, Saradindu has written thirty three adventures of Byomkesh Bakshi where the sleuth solves the crime exercising his logical thinking capacity and power of intuition. Saradindu is best remembered for his excellent craftsmanship and artistic imagination and these qualities are reflected in both Byomkesh and Baroda stories. Saradindu Bandyopadhyay, a worthy name in the literary genre of historical romance also finds a prominent place Bengali literary tradition for creating the characters of detective Byomkesh Bakshi, the satyanweshi who apart from solving perplexed crimes also seeks to explore the truth and Baroda, the bhutanweshi who comes across several paranormal incidents and narrate his occult experiences to his friends simultaneously trying to provide a possible justification while shaping his inconclusive arguments. Keywords: paranormal, supernatural, ghost, rationality, logic This paper also focuses on the problematic representation of Baroda’s character who manages everyone into believing his concept regarding the existence of ghosts and evil spirits. This study aims to provide a critical response to the antithetical treatment on part of the author where neither scientific rationality nor supernatural theories achieve predominance. However, in another story “Shailarahasya”, Byomkesh succumbs to Baroda’s notion of ghost as he himself experiences the existence of ghost or unearthly spirit, which becomes a crucial factor in solving the crime. In the story “Byomkesh O Baroda” the detective Byomkesh Bakshi is able to outwit Baroda proving his explanation of paranormal activities as vague and irrational. My paper entitled “When Detective seeks the Ghost: Exploring the Paranormal in Saradindu Bandyopadhyay’s Baroda and Byomkesh Stories” is a modest attempt to explore the intricate structure of both detective fictions and ghost stories of Saradindu Bandyopadhyay. Nevertheless, the author presents a unique glimpse when these two fictional characters confront each other attempting to establish the supremacy of their respective ideas and thinking processes. Whereas Byomkesh Bakshi, being the detective uses his scientific and logical reasoning faculty to search the truth and solve the case Baroda encounters supernatural events in his life and proceeds to narrate his occult experiences which are devoid of any apparent rationality. However, the frameworks within which these two figures operate are entirely different from each other. The eminent Bengali litterateur Saradindu Bandyopadhyay is famous for his two extremely popular characters, notably Baroda, the bhutanweshi or the ghost-hunter and Byomkesh Bakshi, the satyanweshi or the truth-seeker. Scholar, Department of English, Visva-Bharati
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