Satyajit Ray's short stories

Born: May 2, 1921
Died: April 23, 1992

Satyajit Ray was India's first internationally recognized film-maker and, several years after his death, still remains the most well-known Indian director on the world stage. As a filmmaker he made a mark all over the world and Honored with Lifetime Achievement Oscar Award & Bharat Ratna. Here is the list of his directed film:Pather Panchali (Song of the Little Road) Aparajito (The Unvanquished) Parash Pathar (The Philosopher's Stone) Jalsaghar (The Music Room) Apur Sansar (The World of Apu) Devi (The Goddess) Teen Kanya (Three Daughters) Rabindranath Tagore, Documentary Kanchenjungha Abhijan (The Expedition) Mahanagar (The Big City) Charulata (The Lonely Wife) Two, Short Kapurush - O – Mahapurush (The Coward and the Holy Man) Nayak (The Hero) Chiriyakhana (The Zoo) Goopy Gyne Bagha Byne (Adventures of Goopy and Bagha) Aranyer Din Ratri (Days and Nights in the Forest) Pratidwandi (The Adversary) Seemabaddha (Company Limited) Sikkim, Documentary The Inner Eye, Documentary Asani Sanket (Distant Thunder) Sonar Kella (The Fortress) Jana Aranya (The Middleman) Bala, Documentary Shatranj Ke Khilari (The Chess Players) Joi Baba Felunath (The Elephant God) Hirak Rajar Deshe (Kingdom of Diamonds) Pikoo (Pikoo's Day), Short Sadgati (The Deliverance) Ghare-Baire (Home and the World) Sukumar Ray, Documentary Ganashatru (Enemy of the People) Shakha Prashakha (Branches of the Tree) Agantuk (The Stranger)

As a film maker we all know him very well. Apart from film making he was a great author, painter, poet and sculpturist also. He wrote quite a few limerics. He was born in an intellectual and affluent family in Calcutta. His father Sukumar Ray was a Bengali humorous poet, story writer and playwrighter. As perhaps the most famous Indian practitioner of literary nonsense, he is often compared to Lewis Carroll. His grandfather Upendrakishore Ray was a distinguished writer, painter, a violin player and a composer. He was also a pioneer in half-tone block making and founded one of the finest presses in the country - U. Ray & Sons. in 1880s. When Satyajit was only 2-years-old his father died and he had to move out of their spacious house with his mother. He joined Ballygaunge Govt High School at the age of eight. This is where I feel really proud of my school. I did my schooling also from that school. In many articles I found him talking about his school experience and most of the experience was on some small thinks like the Banyan tree, the big school gate, the ground which eventually may not connect others. But as I am from the same school, believe me those feelings always touch me whenever I read them. It seems I am reading my own memories.

While talking about his short stories I must start with two remarkable characters created by him, Feluda and Professor Shanku. Feluda is a character of young detective whose original name is Pradosh Mitra. The full Feluda series consists of hundreds short stories. There are one more bold character in this series is Jatayu, who is an author. The whole series was written targeting the young people only; however it is similarly popular in kids and adults also. Satyajit Ray himself made two films out of this Feluda series, Sonar Kella and Jay baba felunath. His son Sandip Ray recently filmed two other stories "Bombaier Bombete" and "Koilash e Kelenkari". The essence of these thrillers is the way of solving the mysteries. Feluda never use any technology to solve his case. Its only his "Magojastro" (Brain Power). The other renowned character is Professor Shanku. This series is of science fictions. Shanku is a great scientist who invented some outstanding products like "Botica Indica" (homoeopathy globule sized tablets to fill stomach), "Annihilin pistol" (A pistol that annihilates), "Omniscope" (an instrument which is a microscope, telescope and x-ray machine in one) etc. The stories are about his adventures with these incredible inventions. There is one story I remember named "Nakul babu o El-Dorado". In that story first I came to know about the giant African snake anaconda. One good thing about his stories is the content. In the prologue of each story he put historical, geographical, scientific facts and figures. In my childhood I learned a lot many things from his stories. These two series are the most popular. There are some more stories which I like most. I have his full short story collection, and most surprisingly each story out them is different from the others.

Barin Bhowmiker Baram (Barin Bhowmik’s Disease) is about a profound singer’s story, who had Kleptomania in his early days.

Khagom is a story about a snake. Then name has come from Mahabharata. In the story a man unnecessary killed the snake named Khagom but the priest who used to take care of that old snake eventually gets his friend (Khagom) back. The way transformation is described in the story, is really going to thrill anyone.

In a story called Bhuto Satyajit Ray highlighted on Ventriloquism which is an art of making one’s dummy talk when his master is the actual talker.

Bipin babur smritibhrom (Memory loss of Bipin babu) elaborates a healthy revenge by a old friend by creating an environment as Bipin babu lost his memory.

Brihochonchu is about a big bird which had created problem by his diet.

Patalbabu is a character in the story Patalbabu Film Star where he is a good stage actor and offered for a role in a film. In the story we get to know with how much dedication he portrayed the small role.The list is long, in one line it’s impossible to describe. Being a good painter he used to design all his story book’s cover pages and inside the books one can find his excellent touch on the sketches. The only thing is all the stories are written only in Bengali and till date no one took initiative to translate those in any other language. So I believe a great collection of short stories is still out of reach for many of us.