THE GREEN MEN
About this ebook
Many years ago, when the triumphant march of science fiction in Bengali literature had just begun, the Sahityabashor programme of All India Radio featured an extraordinary story read by Satyajit Ray, Premendra Mitra, Dilip Roychowdhury, and Adrish Bardhan.
A single story. None of them revealed the entire plot to the others. Premendra Mitra began it, and Satyajit Ray ended it. Dilip Roychowdhury and Adrish Bardhan took the story forward. None of the three had told one another, or Ray, how the story should end. He composed the final episode with a combination of marvellous imaginativeness and superb craft. And he created a sensation when telling his story. With his inimitable baritone he proved that writing and narrating are not the same thing, that the written word can create a deeply resounding work of art through speech. He had asked for a glass of water to take into the studio. When the recording was complete, everyone who listened to the playback was overwhelmed.
The title of The Green Men was given by Premendra Mitra. The idea for a story with different episodes contributed by various writers was his too. The story, however, had vanished into thin air after being read on air—though the tape survives. It was published twice, in All India Radio’s Betar Jagat magazine, and subsequently in Fantastic magazine. It does not appear in any collection of stories by Satyajit Ray, Premendra Mitra, Dilip Roychowdhury, or Adrish Bardhan.
This is the first-ever English translation of "The Green Men" being published as an independent story. We thank and acknowledge Kalpabiswa for publishing the story in Bengali as "Shobuj Manush."
About the author
Satyajit Ray was an Indian film director, scriptwriter, documentary filmmaker, author, lyricist, magazine editor, illustrator, calligrapher and music composer. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest filmmakers of all time. His contribution to the Bengali science fiction genre is remarkable.
Premendra Mitra was a Bengali poet, author and film director. His science fiction pieces are renowned. His critique of humanity led him to believe that for it to survive, humans would have to “forget their differences and be united.”
Adrish Bardhan was an author who specialised in writing detective and science fiction. His characters were hugely popular among the Bengali readers. He was the founder secretary of the Science Fiction Cine Club.
Dilip Roychowdhury was a Bengali author who studied Chemistry. His interest in writing science fiction stories developed because of his dear friend, Premendra Mitra. He later started writing for Adrish Bardhan’s magazine, Ashcharjo. He had a distinguished style of writing which made his science fiction stories so popular.
Arunava Sinha translates classic, modern and contemporary Bengali fiction and nonfiction into English. Over 50 of his translations have been published so far. Twice the winner of the Crossword translation award, for Sankar's Chowringhee (2007) and Anita Agnihotri's Seventeen (2011), respectively, he has also won the Muse India award for translation for Buddhadeva Bose’s When The Time Is Right (2012) and been shortlisted for The Independent Foreign Fiction prize (2009) for his translation of Chowringhee and long-listed for the Best Translated Book, Poetry, award in the USA for his translation of Things That Happen and Other Poems – by Bhaskar Chakravarti. Besides India, his translations have been published in the UK and the US in English, and in several European and Asian countries through further translation. He is the Books editor of Scroll.in, and teaches at Ashoka University. He was born and grew up in Kolkata, and lives and writes in New Delhi.
