Feature Article

KOUSHIK ROY

Professor
Shonku
An Amazing Creation
Celebrating 50 years of an interesting
and ingenious sci-fi character

CIENCE fiction stories are always

regarding as the incredible
communion between the ethics of
literature and probable feats to be
achieved by the scientific and
technological progression in the near
future. Doyens in sci-fi like Robert
Silverberg, Arthur C. Clarke, Jules Verne,
Ray Bradbury, H.G. Wells and Isaac Asimov
had predicted the popular emergence
of submarine, space travel, computer,
mobile
phones,
robotics
and
telecommunications through their literary
oeuvres.
In the same avenue of sci-fi, Bengals
erstwhile literar y genius and also the
Oscar-winning film director Satyajit Ray
never lagged behind. Satyajit imbibed the
ancestral literary bravura of his illustrious
father Sukumar Roy and his grandfather
Kamadaranjan Roy (popular as Upendra
Kishore Roychowdhury). Being endowed
with such cerebral inspiration, Satyajit s
bibliophilic genius helped him to create
an astoundingly prodigious, inimitable,
versatile, scientist character, a la model
of the eccentric, yet talented scientist,
created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in his
sci-fi stor y The Lost World Professor
Challenger. The name of that phenomenal
SCIENCE REPORTER, MARCH 2012

sci-fi character, chiselled by Satyajit is

Professor Trilokeshwar Shonku, whose
name might have been inspired by one of
the gems in Chandragupta Vikramadityas
Royal Court.
It is also said that the sedate, publicityshy, inquisitive and daring, bespectacled
academician with a bald pate and salt
and pepper beard was also inspired by
Sukumar Roy s parodic rendition on Prof.
Challenger Prof Heshoram Hushiar.
Recently, the 50 th anniversar y of the
emergence of Professsor Shonku, an
inhabitant of Giridih, Jharkhand, on the
bank of River Ushri, is being observed
unnoticed. Prof. Shonku belonged to the
legion of other globally renowned sci-fi
characters like Flash Gordon, Buck Rogers,
Captain Han Solo, Captain Nemo in Vernes
magnum opus Twenty Thousand Leagues
Under the Sea and Doctor Victor
Frankenstein.
Prior to Yuri Gagarins space flight on
board the Vostok, Neil Armstrongs giant
leap forward on the lunar surface and
Alexei Leonov s space-walk, Professor
Shonku
made
his
phenomenal
appearance in Rays 1961 story Byomyatrir
Diary (Diary of A Cosmonaut) with his selfmanufactured spaceship. In the story, the

40

rockets design was credited by Satyajit to

the excellence of two pioneering space
scientists Robert Hutchins Goddard and
Hermann Oberth.
During that space Odyssey, Prof
Shonku takes the robot invented by him
Bidhushekhar (meaning the apex of
intelligence) and a specially invented
weapon the Snuff-gun (Nasyastra)
which would make his enemies sneeze
miserably for at least 33 hours. Prof. Shonku
wrote down this story in a diary form with
an indelible ink, which changed its colour
from red to yellow on pages that were
imperishable and elasticized like rubber.
Insomnia or lack of sleep seems to
be one of the maladies happening to the
contemporary humans. In order to remedy
this, Prof. Shonku invents a new sleeping
pill, Jambhrinstra, which liberates
humankind from the bane of insomnia.
Prof. Shonku also invents a unique fish-pill
for his feline pet Newton (Satyajits obituary
to the doyen). Prof. Shonku also takes a
space-suited Newton to the lunar surface
which makes us call up the spatial journey
by the Soviet dog Laika Kudrivka and two
U.S. apes Abel and Baker.
Prof. Shonku s rocket is incredibly
made of some exotic mushrooms
(agaricus), snakes moulted skin, tortoise
eggshells,
mixed
with
Tantrum
Boropaxinate and aqueous velosilica. Prof
Shonku is also an astute botanist, whose
passion towards our green friends remains
Satyajits homage to Acharya J.C. Bose
and Carolus Linnaeus. Prof. Shonku grows
a special breed of Golancha flower, with
five finger-like petals. Those petals are
found
emitting
lights
or
phospholuminescence, which hints at the
innovative scientists phytological expertise.
He also invents a special capsule called
Batika Indica with the extract of Banyan
fruits to curb a days appetite.
Most of Prof. Shonku s incredible
tribulations and scientific odysseys had
been printed in the premier and traditional,
juvenile, Bengali monthly Sandesh (The
News), once edited by Satyajits renowned
writer grandfather, Upendrakishore and
later, by Sukumar. Prof. Shonku is presented
by Satyajit as an inquisitive, mystery loving
scientist and a courageous, geographical
explorer in an immaculate combination
a pleasant and paradigmatic amalgam
of Sven Hedin, Sir David Livingstone, Dr
Alexander Fleming, Albert Einstein and
Thomas Alva Edison.

Feature Article

Satyajit always believed that no

benevolent scientific feats can be gained
without devotional assistance and
cumulative works. Fleming might not have
invented penicillin without the help of
Ernest Chaine, F. Banting could not devise
the Insulin without the assistance of Dr Best.
So, Prof. Shonku is often assisted in his
scientific explorations by his dedicated
circle of globally acclaimed friends-cumscience researchers Wilhelm Kroll,
Jeremy Saunders, Prof Arthur Sommerville
and Dr Sheng.
The phenomenal character of Prof
Shonku encapsulates spiritual aloofness
from all materialistic greed, ferocious
determination to bust any myster y and
combat any evil with his cerebral prowess
to benefit the Earth, restraint and also a
positive pride to be a Bengalee scientist
like Acharya J.C. Bose, Dr Meghnad Saha,
Dr P.C. Mahalanobis and Dr U.N.
Brahmachari. All of his stories are scripted
in the first person, autobiographical
narrative in the diary format.
Professor Trilokeshwar Shonku always
likes to devise scientific instruments and
medicines by the incredible mixture of
diversified ingredients. So, it is no wonder
then that the genius devises a typical
medicine by mixing the extracts of
Paranoium
Potentate,
Sodium
Bicorbonate, Babui birds eggyolk
marigold (Genda flower) and Tincture
Iodine. His incredible anodyne, Miracuroll
ointment is made of lobsters whiskers. In
Egypt, Prof Thornikroft is cured of the venom
of a spitting cobra snake and Prof.
Summerton is healed of an insect bite by
that ointment.

Prof Shonku invents the electrocutionproof Karbothene vest.

He also
manufactures the Microsonograph a
spectacular device, like SONAR by which
all the inaudible and ultrasonic noises like
ants cry and rose petals groaning, when
torn, may be recorded. This device takes
after Achar ya J.C. Boses botanical
devices Crescograph and Resonant
Recorder. Prof. Shonku even encounters
genocidal and intelligent viruses from the
smallest planet Terratom which have
alighted on the Earth to depopulate it by
spreading epidemics.
Prof Shonkus invented fire arms, such
as the Annihilin Pistol, are also used to
destroy the sceptres of evil. The futuristic
weapon possesses a unique prowess to
atomize any living being. In order to feel
cool in the scorching heat and to sense
the easy warmth during the spine-chilling
winter, the reticent scientist devises the AirConditioning Pill, which may be kept under
ones tongue.
Prof. Shonku s own aeroplane,
Shankoplane is made of an antigravity
metal Shankovite. Riding on this plane,
Prof. Shonku alights at an exotic island,
called Florona in which the monstrous,
iridescent flowers never assimilate sunlight
and soil nutrients, but sap the cerebral
intelligence of the intellectuals with their
petals, thus making them insensible like kids.
With the aid of the mischievous bioscientist Cornelius Humboldt, he makes a
miniaturized, pre-historic climate, full of
electromagnetic storm and ultraviolet solar
beams within a laborator y flask. Prof
Shonku even carries out the phases of
evolution from aquatic creatures to the
amphibians, sauropods like Brontosauras,
woolly Rhino, primates, and humans within
that flask, even a post-human being with 2
inches of height, having two bulbous eyes
and electrocuting power. However,
Satyajit warns of an infirm human creature,
in the far future, through this evolutionary
experiment by Prof. Shonku, who would be
staring at the destruction of this planet,
being a vulnerable lump of flesh and two
globulous eyes.
Just like Dr Carl Sagan, Dr Robert
Silverberg, Ray Bradbury and Iain Banks,
Satyajit Ray also talks of Extraterrestrial
Intelligence. In one of his stories, Prof.
Shonku comes across a Flying Saucer,
once manipulated by the intelligent
aliens belonging to Alpha Centauri
Constellation. In the stor y named
Mahakasher Doot (Envoy From Space),
Prof. Shonku and his scientist friend, Prof

41

Francis Fielding, receive a unique radio

signal from Epsilon Indie constellation
with the help of the continual dispatches
of 21 centimetre long radiowaves from
a 95 diameter radio receiver.
Much before the invention of
language translator machines which are
now staple for diplomats and delegates
during several global symposiums, Prof.
Shonku devises his unique language
translator machine Linguagraph.
W i t h t h e h e l p o f t h e i n s t r u m e n t, h e
transcribes his pet cat, Newtons meaw
and purr, like I want fish, I want rats
and I want milk.
Satyajit Rays immortal creation Prof.
Shonku, who hovers effortlessly over the
tangible realms of science, technology
and humanism and the intangible domain
of fantasy was long suppressed by Rays
another creation a young, amateurish,
Bengalee private eye Feluda or
Prodosh Chandra Mitra.
The characterization of Prof. Shonku,
like the sci-fi comics character Flash
Gordons scientist friend Dr Hans Jarkov
helps us realize that we must befriend
the boons of science to elevate the
grandeur of our collaborative existence
and peaceful civilization. This 50 years
old sci-fi character should inspire us to
get united against clandestine nuclear
weapon
heads,
greedy
commercialization of scientific wonders
and humans prevalent beliefs in talismans
and rituals, while pretending to bow
before science.

Mr Koushik Roy is an Assistant Teacher at the

Abeshkuri High Madrasah (H.S.), Vill: Sabarandighi,
PO Gangarampur, Dist: Dakshin Dinajpur, West
Bengal
SCIENCE REPORTER, MARCH 2012