Today marks the 104th birth anniversary of the auteur Satyajit Ray. While most remember his classics like Charulata and the Apu trilogy, not many might be aware of his work outside cinema. Ray revived Sandesh, a Bengali children’s periodical, which was started by his grandfather Upendrakishore Ray. To this, he contributed short stories, essays, and poems. Fourteen of his stories have been compiled in Ghosts, Supernatural and Tales of the Uncanny (Puffin Books), a new translation from the Bengali to English by Gopa Majumdar and Indrani Majumdar. Ray’s stories comprise strange happenings that take place in isolated old cottages and dak bungalows in small towns and cities, especially around Calcutta (today’s Kolkata).

An illustration of a lifelike doll from the story Fritz