Professor Shonku
Satyajit Ray
 The introduction to the first story, Byomjaatrir Diary, goes: Professor Shonku is a reputed scientist, who has not been heard of for a while. Some say that he has died while attempting a scientific experiment. Others say that he has gone incognito, and is continuing his scientific researches and experiments at some unknown corner of the earth. He will reappear in due time. The first of Professor Shonku’s diaries come to light through a certain Tarak Chatterjee, an amateur (and rather poor) writer, who has a fascination for tiger stories. On hearing that a large meteor had hit the Matharia areas of the Sunderbans, he had visited the location in search of tiger-skin. Failing to find them, he had looked around to find a red notebook (which turned out to be the first of Professor Shonku’s diaries). This he hands to the narrator of the story, who then replicates the journal entries in the diary, and that constitute the first story, Byomjaatrir Diary. The diary, even though apparently made of a material which is inextinguishable and cannot be torn or cut, is eventually destroyed by a bunch of red ants, who somehow manage to eat in to entirety. However, the narrator then visits Professor Shonku’s laboratory in Giridih, and locates 21 other diaries and replicates them periodically, each as a story. After the first few stories, the narrator does not reappear, with the stories starting with the journal entries