Professor Shonku o Har

Professor Shonku o Har (English translation: Professor Shonku and the Bone) was first published in Sandesh magazine, in December 1963.

Introduction
This is the second story in Professor Shonku series, and the second and final time we get the comments from the anonymous narrator.

Summary
The story starts when Professor Shonku says the he is writing his diary sitting inside a cave at place near the foot of the Nilgiri mountains. There is an Ashwatha tree just in the front of the cave. Inside the cave there are a pile of bones belonging to a prehistoric animal. Then he recapitulates a strange incident that happened three years ago, which made him interested about bones.

One summer evening when Professor Shonku was sipping coffee at his Giridih house, his neighbour Abinashbabu paid him a visit. Shonku showed Abinashbabu his latest invention, Mangorange, a tree which is a mixture of mango and orange. Abinashbabu then told Shonku that a Holy Man has come to the city, who is currently living at the city cremation place. The holyman is supposed to know Sanjivani Mantra (a hymn that can revive the dead). At first, Shonku refused to believe him, but Abinashbabu insisted Shonku to come with him to the Burning Ghat and see the holyman in action. To Shonku's astonishment, the Holyman successfully brought back a rabbit into life from just a pile of its bones by muttering an inaudible hymn. After that Shonku visited the Holyman in two more occasions, and in each occasion a new animal was brought back into life from a pile of its bones. Professor Shonku figured out that the hymn is the key to the Holy man's art of bringing animals back to life. So, in order to figure out the hymn he decided to secretly record it. The next day, Shonku successfully recorded the hymn. Then he came back home and played back the recording. Midway into the playback, Shonku noticed the holyman hanging from a tree of Shonku's garden, laughing and looking furiously at the recorder. When he played the recording again, he found that the hymn has been replaced by a strange laugh of the holyman. The next day, Abinashbabu told that the Holyman has left the city. Since that day, Shonku became intrigued about bones. He studied a lot about bones, he even invented a pair of glasses through which one can see directly the skeleton of any animal. Also during this period Shonku met Mr. Iyenger. Once in his house, Shonku noticed a bone of the toe of an unknown animal. Mr. Iyenger said that he has found that bone in the foot of the Nilgiri forest. Prof. Shonku immediately recognized the bone to be of a Brontosaurus and decided to go there in order to carry out further investigations.?