Trilokeshwar Shonku

Professor Trilokeshwar Shonku is a fictitious character created by Satyajit Ray. He was regarded as an outstanding inventor, next only to Thomas Alva Edison. He was born in Giridih, a small town in the Indian state of Jharkhand.

The date of birth of Prof. Shonku is disputed. According to the story Swarnaparnee, he was born on 16th June 1911. His father, Tripureshwar Shonku, was the best doctor in Giridih of his time, who used to follow Ayurveda. Professor Shonku possesses unparalleled linguistic abilities. He is fluent in as many as sixty nine languages. Apart from his mother tongue Bengali he is fluent in Sanskrit, English, German, French, Spanish, Portoguese, Arabic, Greek, Tibetan even the ancient Egyptian language written in Egyptian hieroglyphs. He is a cat lover. He owns a cat called “Newton”. He is presently residing in a distant planet called “Tafa”.

Early Life
Professor Shonku showed first signs of his amazing scientific talent when he was just five years old. He used to play a game of Tiddly winks with his friend Bhuto. While playing this game, Prof. Shonku suddenly discovered where and how one should press the winks so that it falls into the target. At the age of eleven he mastered the Portuguese language with the help of Father Rebello, who was the Father of the local church. Prof. Shonku also excelled in academics. He secured the first place in all his school examinations. He passed Matriculation when he was just twelve. Then he went to Kolkata for higher studies. He passed I. Sc examinations when he was fourteen and B. Sc. examinations when he was sixteen with double honours in Physics and Chemistry. After this, he returned to his hometown, and for the next four years studied various subjects like arts, literature, history, philosophy etc. During this period, he also learned French and German using Linguaphone records.

Professional Career and Inventions
When he was just twenty years old, he joined Scottish Church College of Kolkata as a professor of physics. It is unclear when he resigned from this post, and devoted himself in full time scientific research at his ancestral home in Giridih. While he was in Giridih, his servant Prahlad took care of him, and he was frequently visited by his neighbour Abinashbabu.

He invented miracurol tablets from the plants of a tree of the same name. Miracurol tablets can cure any ailment except common cold. (Though in the story Swarnaparnee miracurol tablets cured the common cold of Fräulein Fitzner.)