It all began with the fall of a meteorite and the crater it made. In its centre was a red notebook, sticking out of the ground—the first (or was it really the last?) of Professor Shonku’s diaries. Professor Trilokeshwar Shonku, eccentric genius and scientist, disappeared without a trace after he shot off into space in a rocket from his backyard in Giridih, accompanied by his loyal but not-toointelligent servant Prahlad, his cat Newton, and Bidhushekhar, his robot with an attitude. What has become of the professor? Has he decided to stay on in Mars, his original destination? Or has he found his way to some other planet and is living there with strange companions? His last diary tells an incredible story . . . Other diaries unearthed from his abandoned laboratory reveal stranger and even more exciting adventures involving a ferocious sadhu, a revengeful mummy and a mad scientist in Norway who turns famous men into six-inch statues. Exciting, imaginative and funny, the stories in this collection capture the sheer magic of Ray’s lucid language, elegant style, graphic descriptions and absurd humour. The indomitable Professor Shonku has returned, to win himself over a whole new band of followers!

‘Winter Queen’ is the story of a prostitute, who dares to state unhesitatingly, ‘Out of all the visitors coming to this Bungalow, someone might be my real father and someone else might be my real brother…….. It might sound unpleasant, but can you tell with certainty that none of them had not slept with me for the night in their subsequent visits?” In the story ‘Anumeya’s Self-Portrait’ Anumeya is an effeminate character, devoid of virility. He couldn’t live with deception and ultimately had to commit suicide. ‘The Eyes’ is a psychological story. Elija’s psychology was devastated. The eyes transplanted on her blind husband Nirod was donated by a jailbird and her rapist. How that strong feeling of hate towards those eyes ultimately brought separation between Elija and her husband has been beautifully narrated in the story. The story of a royal breed bitch Rocky and its high society master in ‘The Path to Freedom’ speaks of an obsession with class difference. Each story is gripping and caters to a different taste. A rickshaw-puller Sania is temporarily swayed away by the beauty of a young girl. In the end he realizes his folly to finally come back to the truth of his life; his wife, in ‘The Colours of a Rainbow’. The reader is left with pure joy of reading a great literature. The surprising end in the story ‘Grandfather’s Beloved’ will definitely blow the reader out of his wits.

The classic, heart-touching story of unrequited love of a man's fall from grace and his tragic end offers an insightful and compassionate portral of men and women in love. Devdas, written in early decades of the twentieth century, still captivates readers, and has been filmed several times - a testament to endurance and class. One of Sarat Chandra Chatterjee's finest novels, it reveals the best there is in Indian romantic literature. The abridged translation of Devdas, Srikanta and six of Sarat Chandra's short stories brings to English readers a careful selection of writer's best.