Railway
Who created the fictional scientist 'Professor Shonku'?
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Answer: Option A — Satyajit Ray
Detailed Solution
"Professor Shonku" is a fictional scientist and inventor created by the filmmaker and writer Satyajit Ray. The first Shonku story, "Byomjatrir Diary" ("The Diary of a Space Traveller"), appeared in 1961 in the Bengali children's magazine "Sandesh".
About Professor Shonku:
His full name is Trilokeshwar Shonku. He lives in the town of Giridih (now in Jharkhand) with his servant Prahlad and his cat Newton.
The stories are written as entries from his diaries.
He invents amazing devices, such as the "Annihilin" pistol (which makes enemies disappear), "Miracurall" (a cure-all pill), "Omniscope" and the "Linguagraph" (a translating machine).
He travels around the world on adventures with friends such as the German scientist Wilhelm Krol and the Englishman Jeremy Saunders.
The English collection "The Incredible Adventures of Professor Shonku" presents translations of many of these stories.
Satyajit Ray as a writer:
He revived the magazine "Sandesh" in 1961. It had been founded by his grandfather, Upendrakishore Ray Chowdhury, in 1913.
He created the famous detective "Feluda" (Prodosh Chandra Mitter), first appearing in 1965, with his cousin Topshe and the writer Lalmohan Ganguly ("Jatayu").
He also wrote many short stories and the "Tarini Khuro" series.
About Satyajit Ray (1921-1992):
He is regarded as one of the greatest filmmakers in the world. His first film, "Pather Panchali" (1955), began the "Apu Trilogy".
He received the Honorary Academy Award (Oscar) for lifetime achievement in 1992, and the Bharat Ratna in the same year.
His father, Sukumar Ray, was a famous writer of nonsense verse ("Abol Tabol") and "HaJaBaRaLa".
Other Bengali writers:
- Sunil Gangopadhyay: created the adventurer "Kakababu".
- Shirshendu Mukhopadhyay: humorous and supernatural children's stories.
- Sharadindu Bandyopadhyay: created the detective "Byomkesh Bakshi".
Why not the other options?
- ✗Sunil Gangopadhyay created "Kakababu".
- ✗Sukumar Ray wrote "Abol Tabol".
- ✗Shirshendu Mukhopadhyay wrote humorous children's stories.
Quick tip
Remember: Satyajit Ray created "Professor Shonku" (1961) and the detective "Feluda" (1965) in "Sandesh"; "Byomkesh Bakshi" = Sharadindu Bandyopadhyay; "Kakababu" = Sunil Gangopadhyay.
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Books & Authors — Preparation
This question tests your understanding of Books & Authors, a key topic in the General Knowledge section. The detailed solution above uses a step-by-step approach to show the reasoning, and where available, a shortcut that helps you solve similar questions in under 90 seconds during the actual exam.
This topic covers famous books and their authors, including ancient Indian texts, works of the freedom struggle, classic and modern literature, autobiographies of famous people, and recently published books by well-known personalities. Questions usually name a book and ask for its author, or the other way round. Ancient and historical books, such as Arthashastra (Kautilya), Indica (Megasthenes) and Gitanjali (Rabindranath Tagore), are tested most often. Autobiographies are another favourite, so learn titles such as 'My Experiments with Truth' (Mahatma Gandhi) and 'Wings of Fire' (A. P. J. Abdul Kalam). Practise the books and authors questions below, written in the style of the general awareness sections of exams such as SSC, banking, railways, CUET GAT, MAH CET and CLAT. Each question comes with a detailed explanation that adds related facts, so every question helps you revise more than one point.