I know that almost all of my friends are completely unaware of this character. So I need to first introduce him. Misir Ali is a character of a series of novels written by the Late Bangaldeshi author Humayun Ahmed. He happen to be one of my favorite writers, so I just went about collecting his books and reading them.
Somehow this article or thought is not written for the people who might get the link directly, but for those fans of Misir Ali who will look for him in the internet. Wikipedia has a fine article about him, but somehow I found that little incomplete and wrong and decided write my own thoughts here.
Misir Ali as we know is a lecturer of abnormal psychology in Dhaka University and is very logical person with immense pride in his knowledge, though he is the one quietly accept the limitations of human knowledge and boundaries. As the series progresses we see him losing his job, his health getting from bad to worse, his memory failing him, he is getting more irritated by people around him and he is always thinking about imminent death, which is mostly symbolized by a Church bell ringing or train coming to pick you up.
Misir Ali heavily conflicts with the other major character of Humayun Ahmed - Himalaya aka Himu - a young man in yellow kurta without any pocket. They together define two completely polar opposites of human nature. Misir Ali shows the old age and failing health, while Himu is almost always young and healthy. One has very high logic while the other has a high ESP. Though they both help people with problems, but the method of solving varies drastically, with Misir Ali employing logic and deductive reasoning almost in the manner of any Sherlock Holmes style detective and Himu resting solely on chance events and his ESP and charm of character.
Misir Ali is actually a detective in most of his cases, that come to him by chance or by request from clientsl albeit the problems being of abnormal in nature which we would easily associate with supernatural. There is an exception in the case of "Misir Alir Amimangsito Rahasya (The Unsolved Mystery of Misir Ali)", where it is about a murder which was taken as a suicide with no paranormal events happening when Misir Ali starts his investigation. Although there is a heavy dependance of logic and psychology to explain the abnormal phenomena happening in each of the plots, but there are always some chance events, too, helping Misir Ali. And in many cases there is an open acceptance of different mental abilities like telepathy, telekinesis and mind reading capabilities of some particular persons. And almost nowhere the supernatural is completely frowned upon. Infact in Misir Ali's own words, there is super natural, and we don't know how to explain them. But one day for sure we will know how to explain them and they will not remain super natural any more. In his words, the nature doesn't like mysteries but works in a mysterious way, which is out of human comprehension. This is where I start liking the character.
Somehow this article or thought is not written for the people who might get the link directly, but for those fans of Misir Ali who will look for him in the internet. Wikipedia has a fine article about him, but somehow I found that little incomplete and wrong and decided write my own thoughts here.
Misir Ali as we know is a lecturer of abnormal psychology in Dhaka University and is very logical person with immense pride in his knowledge, though he is the one quietly accept the limitations of human knowledge and boundaries. As the series progresses we see him losing his job, his health getting from bad to worse, his memory failing him, he is getting more irritated by people around him and he is always thinking about imminent death, which is mostly symbolized by a Church bell ringing or train coming to pick you up.
Misir Ali heavily conflicts with the other major character of Humayun Ahmed - Himalaya aka Himu - a young man in yellow kurta without any pocket. They together define two completely polar opposites of human nature. Misir Ali shows the old age and failing health, while Himu is almost always young and healthy. One has very high logic while the other has a high ESP. Though they both help people with problems, but the method of solving varies drastically, with Misir Ali employing logic and deductive reasoning almost in the manner of any Sherlock Holmes style detective and Himu resting solely on chance events and his ESP and charm of character.
Misir Ali is actually a detective in most of his cases, that come to him by chance or by request from clientsl albeit the problems being of abnormal in nature which we would easily associate with supernatural. There is an exception in the case of "Misir Alir Amimangsito Rahasya (The Unsolved Mystery of Misir Ali)", where it is about a murder which was taken as a suicide with no paranormal events happening when Misir Ali starts his investigation. Although there is a heavy dependance of logic and psychology to explain the abnormal phenomena happening in each of the plots, but there are always some chance events, too, helping Misir Ali. And in many cases there is an open acceptance of different mental abilities like telepathy, telekinesis and mind reading capabilities of some particular persons. And almost nowhere the supernatural is completely frowned upon. Infact in Misir Ali's own words, there is super natural, and we don't know how to explain them. But one day for sure we will know how to explain them and they will not remain super natural any more. In his words, the nature doesn't like mysteries but works in a mysterious way, which is out of human comprehension. This is where I start liking the character.
