Move away from reel-life Sherlock Holmes, and meet Rajani Pandit, India’s first female detective who along with 20 members, has been running Rajani Pandit Detective Services for the last 25 years.
Till date, she has solved almost 75,000 cases. But her journey was never easy. She was in college when investigation interested her for the first time. “I realised that if you look around carefully, you will find many problems and mysteries in many houses. Problems that people can’t solve themselves and need external help with. But they don’t have any evidence and don’t know where to go. That’s when an investigator comes into the picture,” she said.
Rajani’s father was a CID inspector, and worked on the Mahatma Gandhi murder case. She was inclined towards investigation since her childhood, and in one instance she pretended to be a maid in a house for 6 months to catch a murderer. Hailing from a middle class family, Rajani studied Marathi literature at Ruparel college, and took up a temporary job before she set up her agency.
She is the recipient of Hirkani award from Doordarshan, and has also received accolades for a couple of books she has written. Talking about today’s scenario she says the work of a detective has become quite easy because of the availability of modern equipment like recorders, bugs, spy cameras, and more.
Giving advice to the youngsters today, she said “If you want to do something, you should do it. There should be no shame in doing any work you are passionate about. Self-confidence, courage, and stubbornness – these are the things that take you a long way. With these, women can do anything that they set their minds to.“
Rajani, you’re an inspiration and we hope you continue to empower more women in times to come.
