Professor Shonku (short story collection) facts for kids

Professor Shonku is a super cool character created by the famous Indian writer and filmmaker Satyajit Ray. This book, Professor Shonku, is a collection of exciting short stories about him. It was first published in India in 1965.

Most of these stories first appeared in a children's magazine called Sandesh. The stories are written like journal entries, as if Professor Shonku himself wrote them! They are full of science fiction and adventure.

Meet Professor Shonku

Professor Shonku is a brilliant scientist. But one day, he suddenly disappeared! Some people thought he might have had an accident during a scientific experiment. Others believed he went into hiding to continue his amazing research. They hoped he would return someday.

The first of Professor Shonku's secret diaries was found by a writer named Tarak Chatterjee. He was looking for tiger skins in the Sundarbans after a meteor landed there. Instead, he found a special red notebook. This notebook was Professor Shonku's first diary!

Tarak Chatterjee gave the diary to the story's narrator. The narrator then copied down everything in the diary. This became the first story, "Byomjaatrir Diary." Even though the diary seemed super strong, a bunch of red ants somehow managed to eat it all up!

Later, the narrator visited Professor Shonku's laboratory in Giridih. There, he found 21 more diaries! These diaries became the other amazing stories in the collection.

Exciting Adventures of Professor Shonku

Byomjatrir Diary: A Trip to Space (First published 1961)

This story starts when a man brings Professor Shonku's journal to the editor of Sandesh magazine. Professor Shonku had disappeared 15 years earlier. The diary showed that the scientist was getting ready for a trip to Mars! His neighbor, Abinashbabu, made fun of him, but Shonku kept working.

Professor Shonku also invented a robot named Bidhushekhar. The Professor, Bidhushekhar, his servant Prahlad, and his pet cat Newton, all landed on Mars. But Martians attacked them! They escaped Mars and got lost in space. After many days, they found a new planet called Tafa. The people of Tafa were very friendly and welcomed them. They even made Professor Shonku a citizen!

The editor wanted to publish the journal. But after copying it, he found that a swarm of ants had destroyed the diary!

Professor Shonku o Harh: Bones Come Alive (First published 1964)

One time, Professor Shonku visited a sadhu (a holy man) in Giridih. This sadhu could supposedly bring dead animals back to life with his spells! When skeletons were brought to him, he would chant, and the animals would get their flesh back and come alive.

As a scientist, Professor Shonku thought it was hypnotism. But he was shocked to see it wasn't! The animals really did come back to life. Professor Shonku secretly recorded the sadhu's chant. But when he played it back in his lab, he only heard a scary laugh! Then, he saw the sadhu hanging from a tree outside his window, giving him an angry stare. The next day, the sadhu was gone from Giridih.

This made Professor Shonku very interested in bones. When a friend showed him what looked like Brontosaurus bones, he went to the Nilgiris forests to investigate. He found the bones in a hidden cave. As he put the huge skeleton together, the sadhu appeared again! He was hanging from a banyan tree at the cave's entrance, chanting his spell.

The Brontosaurus came alive! But instead of attacking Shonku, it charged out of the cave. It started munching on the banyan tree where the sadhu was hanging! The Brontosaurus was a vegetarian, so it went for the first plant it saw. The sadhu tried to reverse the spell, but as he finished, the giant dinosaur's bones crashed down on him, ending his life.

Memorable Invention: Mangorange, a hybrid fruit that is a mix of mango and orange.

Professor Shonku o Macaw: The Invisible Potion (First published 1964)

Professor Shonku had a guest, Professor Gajanan Tarafdar, at his lab. Shonku thought Tarafdar was an average scientist. But Tarafdar kept asking lots of questions about Shonku's inventions. He also tried to snoop around the lab. One day, when Shonku left the room, he came back to find Tarafdar secretly reading his papers!

Tarafdar visited a few more times, but Shonku didn't let him into the lab again. A few days later, Shonku found a colorful Macaw in his garden and kept it as a pet. This Macaw was special because it could speak clear Bengali! Shonku could have real conversations with it.

One day, the Macaw asked Shonku what he was working on. Shonku said he was making a potion to make someone invisible for a few hours. The Macaw asked about the ingredients. Shonku listed them: Gorgona Sauce, Paranaium Potentate, Sodium bicarbonate, eggs of the Weaver bird, Tincture of iodine, and Gandal Pata (Skunk Vine) extract.

A few days later, the Macaw disappeared, and Shonku was sad. The next day, Shonku returned from his walk to find his lab messy. He saw some of his research papers flying out the window! As he tried to grab them, he bumped into an invisible person. He struggled with the invisible person, who wasn't very strong. The person got away, but the invisible Macaw attacked them! Shonku got his papers back. During the struggle, the invisible person screamed, and Shonku recognized the voice as Tarafdar's.

The Macaw then explained everything. It was from a Brazilian circus and knew 17 languages! Tarafdar had stolen it and brought it to India. When Tarafdar visited Shonku, he secretly read about the invisibility potion. He then used the Macaw to get the ingredients from Shonku. The Macaw followed Tarafdar's orders. But after the secret was out, Tarafdar tried to kill the bird. The Macaw quickly drank some of the potion to become invisible and escape. It followed Tarafdar and helped Shonku get his papers back!

Notable Invention: An unnamed Invisibility Potion.

Professor Shonku o Egyptio Aatonko: The Mummy's Secret (First published 1964)

This story is about an Egyptian mummy. A man kept telling Professor Shonku to stop his work on mummies. Later, Shonku got a mummy from a friend and took it back to Giridih. But the same man came there again to stop his work! Shonku eventually realized the man was not well.

Professor Shonku o Golok Rahasya: The Smallest Planet (First published 1965)

This adventure is about the smallest planet in the universe, which is full of viruses! Professor Shonku's neighbor, Avinash Majumdar, found this tiny planet in a river and gave it to Shonku.

Professor Shonku o Chi Ching: The Hypnotist (First published 1965)

A Chinese magician once tried to hypnotize Professor Shonku but failed. Years later, the magician, Chi Ching, visited Shonku's house. After the magician left, Shonku saw a lizard eating his dangerous acids, like anihilin acid and nitro-anihilin! The lizard then changed into a Chinese dragon! Shonku used his electric pistol, an invention of his, to try and stop the dragon. But it didn't work!

The next thing Shonku knew, he woke up. He realized that the magician Chi Ching had hypnotized him!

Professor Shonku o Khoka: The Boy Who Knew Too Much (First published 1967)

This story is about a boy who got hurt on his head. His father came to Professor Shonku for help. The boy was saying things he shouldn't know. The boy stayed at Shonku's home. While there, he drank some anihilin acid and got better!

Translations of Professor Shonku

The book Professor Shonku was translated into English by Sukanya Jhaveri in 1981. Many of Professor Shonku's stories were also included in a collection called The Diary of a Space Traveller and other stories. This book was translated by Satyajit Ray himself and Gopa Majumdar. It was published by Puffin Classics in 2004.

Awards for Professor Shonku

Professor Shonku won the Sahitya Academy award for Children's Literature in 1967.