It Happened Tomorrow

What exactly is mean t by science fiction has been beau ti- fully summed up by Hugo Gernsback, who said, "By 'scientification' I mean the Jules Verne, H.G. Wells and Edgar Allan Poe type of story—a charming romance intermingled with scientific fact 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, but, in India, the basic theme of science fiction, be it in any language, is primarily anthropocentric, which deals with the interplay between scientific developments and human emotions or societal foundations.

The first Indian science fiction story is said to have been written in Bengali by Jagadish Chandra Bose and around the same time in Marathi by S. B. Ranade. Over the years science fiction has developed in other languages too, like in Tamil, but it has found strong roots in Marathi language primarily and this becomes evident in this anthology too. A comprehensive view of the trends in Indian science fiction can be obtained by going through this compilation of select stories in various Indian languages carefully culled by author-editor Bal Phondke, who also happens to be the Director of the Publications and Information Directorate, CSIR, New Delhi