outlookindia.com 2021-03-12T15:58:49+05:30
The butler did it and the doodhwala was an eager accomplice but like a cheap Byomkesh clone sold on Howrah sidewalks, the devil was in the telling. The unfolding of a befuddling Bengalee murder mystery when the thievish fox walked into the snare for the wolf. All along, the choice of poison was arsenic, less than one-eighth of a teaspoon of which can kill a healthy adult. Ingesting the toxin in small quantities for a prolonged period causes arsenicosis, cancer. Kills slowly, leads to horrible death. And arsenic has been a silent killer prowling Bengal, like the sneaky butler of detective pulp. That’s no fiction, but a grim fact that a group of researchers at Jadavpur University went after. And so it happened: the study on groundwater arsenic contaminating groceries and dairy in West Bengal upheld the obvious fear (that our food is laced with the toxin) and also confirmed a long-held doubt that the milkman is bilking the folks b