Ghari (story)

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Ghari (The Clock) is a Bengali science fiction story by Premendra Mitra, featuring GhanaDa, the famous teller of tall tales who always brings a scientific twist. It is the third story in the GhanaDa series about Ghanashyam Das, a quirky bachelor who lives with friends in Calcutta and tells amazing, often world-spanning stories.

In the tale, it is Derby day in Calcutta and four friends—Shibu, Gaur, Shishir, and Sudhir—are getting ready to go to the East Bengal vs. Mohun Bagan football match. Sudhir lends his clock to Gaur, and GhanaDa warns them not to accept clocks without checking them first, saying clocks can be dangerous if misused.

GhanaDa then recounts a past adventure from about two months earlier. He had been traveling from Hawaii to Fiji through Samoa and carried out an undercover mission. On that trip he received two telegrams, from Neville Chamberlain and Franklin Roosevelt, requesting urgent help on a secret operation. He explains that some groups in Asia were selling cheap clocks with timers that could be used as bombs to destroy major cities in Europe and the United States.

With GhanaDa’s timely intervention, a major world disaster was averted. But because of all the rapid action and danger, the football match was missed by all the friends.