IT HAPPENED TOMORROW Editor : Bal Phondke
Published by National Book Trust
New Delhi
This book is a collection of 19 select science fiction stories from
various Indian languages. I recommend the book primarily because
it gives us an insight into the kind of science fiction stories written
in India.
The first science fiction story is said to have been written in Bengali
by Sir Jagadish Chandra Bose and around the same time by S. B. Ranade.
Over the years science fiction has developed in other Indian languages
too, like in Tamil bt it has found strong roots in Marathi language and
this becomes evident in this anthology too.
Hugo Grensback has beautifully defined science fiction as "By scientifiction
I mean the Jules Verne, H. G. Wells and Edgar Allan Poe type of story -- a
charming romance intermingled with scientific facts and prophetic vision, and
where new inventions pictured for us today are not at all impossible of
realisation tomorrow. This holds true of most science fiction written in
the West. Whereas in India, the basic theme of science fiction, in any
language is mostly anthropocentric, which deals with the interplay between
scientific developments and human emotions or societal foundations.
The editor has culled a story each from the 19 contributors. The
ones I particularly liked in this collection are 'The Ice Age Cometh' by
Jayant Narlikar, 'The Impostor' by Bal Phondke, 'A journey into darkness'
by Subodh Jawadekar & 'Catastrophe in Blue' by Anish Deb. There are other
renowned writers like Shirshendu Mukhopadhyay and Mukul Sharma who have
contributed for the book. The 270 page book is priced at Rs 55.
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