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Satyajit Ray. Adrish Bardhan. Premendra Mitra. Dilip Roy Chowdhury. Familiar names right? But did you know that they all once collaborated on a #scifi story in 1966? A landmark in #IndianSF, because it's perhaps the 1st instance of a shared universe in this part of the world.
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It was called Sabuj Manush (Green Men) & took the form of a radio broadcast. Instead of original plan of one single story told in many parts, each of the writers decided to write a standalone story set in the same shared universe and was broadcast on @AkashvaniAIR in Feb, 1966
The background to Green Men is that the titular alien race is making behind-the-scenes changes to Earth society to control it. In the first story, by Ghanada-creator Premendra Mitra, the protagonist meets a man who warns him about green men creating trouble across the world.
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The second story is by Adrish Bardhan–who coined the term Kalpabigyan–in which a person writes to him about finding documents, containing nefarious plots, left behind on a train by a green-skinned man.
In Dilip Roy Chowdhury's story, an Indian scientist comes across upon disturbing information at a pharma company in New York, which is researching a tranquiliser that can eliminate & end communal hatred.
The final story is by Satyajit Ray, in which a professor professes to meeting super-humans who pour scorn on, and dismiss, any dreams of world peace because they're planning to take control of the world themselves. Now, none of the writers knew what the others were writing!
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The broadcast was a success by all accounts and re-broadcast multiple times. And thanks to the good folks at Kalpabiswa magazine, Bengalis have been able to read it. And now i come to the reason behind this thread...
Sabuj Manush (Green Men) by Premendra Mitra, Adrish Bardhan, Dilip Roy Chowdhury & Satyajit Ray is finally here in English! Translated by Arunava Sinha. So those of us who can't read Bengali can also enjoy this landmark #IndianSF story. Here you go: https://www.amazon.in/Green-Men-Satyajit-Ray-ebook/dp/B09379WPCN/
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