S02E07: We are all mad here.

On finding my tribe.

Image credits: Shwetha Harsha, ChutneyMix

This flash essay is part of a collaborative, constrained-writing challenge undertaken by some members of the Bangalore Substack Writers Group. This month, each of us examined the concept of ‘BELONGING’. At the bottom of this snippet, you’ll find links to other essays by fellow writers.

Eight years ago, I made a pilgrimage to Devon in England. My destination was Greenway, the beloved home of Agatha Christie, where she spent summers with her family for many, many years. Now managed by the UK National Trust, it is open to visitors—I should say pilgrims like myself, who come from all around the world to see the house that Christie once described in her autobiography as a “dream house” and “the most beautiful place in the world”.

My first glimpse of Greenway House (October 2017)

My favourite book by Christie is perhaps her autobiography, which she wrote on and off, over a 20-year period. It is often criticised for not being a complete or accurate history of her life, but to me, that doesn’t matter. It is the story that she wanted to tell about her life, and isn’t that what we are all trying to do? She gets some years and event sequences mixed up; other biographers have corrected these. But the autobiography reveals how she saw herself and life, and what she wanted people to remember about her. In some ways, this tells me more than any journalistic analysis does.

Reading it nearly 20 years ago made me badly want to visit the places that she described so lovingly. Ashfield, her beloved childhood home in Torquay, no longer exists. Winterbrook House in Oxfordshire, which she called her husband “Max’s house”, is under private ownership. The only one that had deep personal meaning for her and which was open to the public, was Greenway. One day, I decided, I’ll go to Greenway. It sounded like a bucket list item even then—so unlikely and fantastic was the possibility.

Yet, in 2017, I managed it. My first visit to England covered London, Oxford, and a couple of Cotswolds villages—but what I looked forward to most was Devon and Torquay. My husband’s attitude was one of affectionate indulgence and perhaps, bemusement. As I walked through every room in Greenway, muttering lines from Agatha’s autobiography and committing every inch to memory, he explored the expansive gardens and enjoyed views of the river Dart. (To my envy, he even spotted a seal.)

But it was a few hours before, on the Dartmouth Steam Railway train en route to Greenway Halt, that I first felt a sense of belonging.

In the steam train to Greenway Halt (October 2017)

The ticket collector was a bespectacled white-haired gentleman who could have been one of Agatha’s characters. He initially assumed that I was coming down from London. On discovering that I had come all the way from the south of India, he was delighted. Excitedly, he pointed out the village of Churston Ferrers through the train window. “That’s where the body—” he said.

“—of Sir Carmichael Clarke was found in The ABC Murders!” As I finished his sentence, we grinned at each other companionably.

At Greenway, I found that I was far from alone. The place was teeming with other Agatha enthusiasts. The volunteer guides told us that there were Easter eggs from her books hidden all around the house. I went around spotting as many as possible—her set of harlequinade figurines, chocolate boxes with the pink and blue lids swapped, wooden animal figures that she’d brought back from Africa decades ago and which featured in The Man in the Brown Suit…and so much more. Everything felt doubly wonderful because I was surrounded by others on a similar quest. This is how, I suppose, people who go to Comic-Con feel.

Glimpses of Greenway (October 2017)

Anyone with a weird or particularly niche passion will eventually go online to seek their people. I did too, after returning to India. First, I discovered All About Agatha, a podcast by Kemper Donovan and the late Catherine Brobeck. They passionately discussed every single book written by Agatha Christie and rated it on five parameters. I listened while doing the dishes, on my evening walks, and sometimes even during my bath. I disagreed with some of their ratings (Crooked House or Orient Express don’t deserve such high ratings), agreed with others (Five Little Pigs is the GOAT), and enjoyed every episode.

Then I stumbled upon the Shedunnit podcast by Caroline Crampton, which explores classic crime fiction in great detail—tropes, patterns, lesser known authors, social commentary, and much more. It continues to be my favourite podcast ever.

Somewhere along the way, I discovered other fans writing about the genre—Brad Friedman’s Ah, Sweet Mystery, Aidan Brack’s Mysteries Ahoy! and Adam Thomas’s Murder at the Manse right here on Substack—as well as the Golden Age of Detection Facebook group. With every nerdy conversation, furious debate in the comments, and enthusiastic sharing of a newly acquired secondhand gem, I feel more and more like Jewel, the unicorn in Narnia:

Since I began writing About Murder last September, my tribe has only grown—every comment and recommendation I get here brings sheer delight. How joyous this feeling is—to go among mad people and find that you’re not alone after all!

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Find your next good read here:

• Belonging Is A Many Shaped Word by Priyanka Sacheti, A Home For Homeless Thoughts

• I belong by Spandana, Spandana’s Substack

• Unknown Citizen by Nidhishree Venugopal, The General in her Labyrinth

• #14: On Belonging, by Siddhesh Raut, Shana, Ded Shana

• The Canteen by Shruthi, Will you be my Friend?

• Where am I? by Abhiram R, Abhiram’s Newsletter

• Across the Seven Seas, the Ocean Waits by Amit Charles, AC Notes

• Happiness & a sense of belonging by Aarti Krishnakumar, Aarti’s Substack

• Ambiguity of Belonging by Mihir Chate, Mihir’s Substack

• The Complexity of Belonging by Avinash Shenoy, Off the walls

• Somewhere I Belong by Meghana Ramachandra, One True Sentence

• Virtual Embrace by Shwetha Harsha, ChutneyMix

• Food and Belonging by Rakhi Anil