The Diary of a Space Traveller and other Stories by Satyajit Ray

Author:Satyajit Ray [Satyajit, Ray]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
ISBN: 9788184753301
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
Published: 2012-07-13T00:00:00+00:00

18 April

Today, at last, Avinash Babu acknowledged my scientific skills. Avinash Babu is my neighbour. On the whole, he is a good man, but sometimes I find it difficult to put up with his habit of making fun of my research and experiments.

In the last three months, every time he turned up for a chat, I got Prahlad to tell him that I was too busy to see anyone. Today he arrived just as I had finished the final German lesson for Robu, and was sitting in my laboratory, turning the pages of a journal. I told Prahlad to bring him straight to the lab, since I wanted him to meet Robu.

Avinash Babu walked in, screwed up his nose and said, ‘Have you been using heeng?’ Then his eyes fell on Robu and promptly grew round. ‘Oh my God! What is that? A radio? A gramophone? Or what?’

In reply, I said, ‘Ask him. He’ll tell you. His name is Robu.’

‘A robuscope?’

‘No, no. Why are you adding “scope” to his name? He’s simply called Robu. Go on, ask him what he is, he’ll tell you.’

‘Is this a new game?’ asked Avinash Babu and turned to face Robu. ‘All right then, dear Robu, what are you?’

Robu’s reply came clearly through the little hole in his mouth. ‘I am a mechanical man. Professor Shonku’s assistant.’

Avinash Babu nearly collapsed in amazement. Then he heard a list of everything that Robu had learnt to do, and even saw a few examples. His face turned pale. All Avinash Babu could do after that was grab my hands and shake them vigorously. Then he left. That told me that this time he was truly impressed.

Later, I found an article by Professor Borgelt in an old German magazine. It was on robots. He had said, rather arrogantly, that the skill that scientists in Germany had shown in building robots could not be matched by any other country. He also appeared to think that while a robot could learn to obey commands and work like a slave, it could never learn to use its brain independently.

The article included a photograph. Borgelt’s forehead was broad, his eyebrows extraordinarily thick, eyes sunken and, in the middle of his chin, was a square goatee.

Having read his article and seen his photo, now I feel a strong desire to meet him.

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