Professor Shonku (short story collection)
Professor Shonku is a collection of nine science fiction short stories by Satyajit Ray featuring the fictional scientist-inventor Professor Shonku. The collection was first published in 1965 by Calcutta publisher NewScript Publications. The original collection contained seven stories, while the eight and ninth stories were added in later editions. Eight of the nine stories were published in the children's magazine Sandesh, while the ninth, "Professor Shonku o Bhoot", was previously published in Ashcharya. The short stories are written in epistolary form, using dated diary entries as a framing device. Introduction The first of Professor Shonku's diaries is discovered by Tarak Chatterjee, an amateur (and rather poor) writer, who has a fascination for tiger stories. On hearing that a large meteor had crashed into the Matharia areas of the Sundarbans, he visited the location in search of tiger skin. Failing to find them, he looked around only to find a red notebook inside the meteor's hole (later learned to be the first of Professor Shonku's diaries). This he hands to the editor of Sandesh, who publishes the diary's entries as the first story, "Byomjatrir Diary". The diary is eaten by fire ants, but the editor visits Professor Shonku's laboratory in Giridih,