Introduction Satyajit Ray was one of India’s greatest artists. He was not only a famous filmmaker but also a writer, illustrator, musician, and designer. Satyajit Ray’s Professor Shonku and the UFO is one of the most thrilling adventures of the eccentric Bengali scientist Trilokeshwar Shonku. Written in 1961 but set in Shonku’s diary entries of 1967, the story blends science fiction with detective intrigue, centering on the destruction of world monuments and the mystery of a supposed alien spacecraft. Carboni’s First Encounter with Professor Shonku In the 17 th September diary entry, Professor Shonku writes about the recent spate of news about UFOs and his first encounter with an Italian Scientist. He meets Rodolfo Carboni at an International Conference in Geneva. Shonku's research paper on his contact with extraterrestrial civilizations via radio signals using basic instruments at Giridih (his city) is highly appreciated by other scientists. Carboni privately tells Shonk...
Gregor’s metamorphosis as a critique on social structures Franz Kafka was a 20th-century writer from Prague, known for his unique style that mixes reality with strange and dream-like events. His novella The Metamorphosis (1915) is one of his most famous works. In this story, Kafka uses the sudden change of the main character, Gregor Samsa, into a giant insect to explore human suffering, loneliness, and society’s cruelty. In The Metamorphosis , Gregor’s transformation is used to criticize social structures like family responsibility, work pressure, and the lack of human compassion. Kafka shows how society values people only for their usefulness. At the beginning, Gregor works as a traveling salesman because he has to pay his parents’ debts. He never thinks of his own happiness, but only about his duty. When he wakes up as an insect, he immediately worries about missing the train for work, not about his strange body. This shows how strongly society forces people to put work b...
