Sandesh (magazine)

Sandesh

Sandesh June 1988 front cover
Editor	Upendrakishore Ray, Sukumar Ray, Subinoy Ray, Satyajit Ray, Subhash Mukhopadhyay (poet), Leela Majumdar, Nalini Das, Bijoya Ray, Sandip Ray
Categories	Children's magazine
Frequency	Monthly
Year founded	1913
Country	India
Language	Bengali

Sandesh (Bengali: সন্দেশ, Shôndesh) is a Bengali children's magazine. The periodical was first published by Upendrakishore Ray in 1913 through his publishing company, M/s U. Ray and Sons. Till date the publication of the magazine had to be stopped twice. The current phase is the third and longest running one spanning more than 56 years.

The magazine was first published from its office in 22, Sukeas Street. Subsequently the office and the press were shifted to the new building built by Upendrakishore at 100, Garpar Road. Upendrakishore's son Sukumar Ray went to Great Britain for advanced training in printing technology, and he joined as an active partner after his return.(1)

After the death of Upendrakishore Roychowdhury in 1915, his eldest son Sukumar Ray succeeded as the editor of the magazine in 1915. Sukumar was a brilliant writer famous for his humouous writings.(2) The Sukumar Ray years established Sandesh as a unique magazine that combined literary values with humour and fun and a lot of information from different parts of the world.(1)(3)

In 1923, after Sukumar's death, his younger brother Subinoy took charge of the magazine. Subinoy was a gifted writer, but he could not tackle the problems of a business facing a serious crisis. The business of U. Roy & Sons became insolvent and the publication of the magazine had to be stopped in 1925.

In 1929 it was revived by the publisher who had purchased the machinery of Upendrakishore's firm. Subinay Ray remained one of the editors in this period too. In 1934 it again ceased publication.

In 1961, the magazine was revived under the editorialship of Satyajit Ray, the famous film director (also the grandson of the founder Upendrakishore Ray and son of Sukumar Ray) and Subhas Mukhopadhyay, a famous poet. Many of Satyajit Ray's writings were first published in this magazine. One of his most famous stories for the magazine was Bankubabur Bandhu (Banku Babu's Friend or Mr. Banku's Friend), a Bengali science fiction story he had written in 1962 and which gained popularity among Bengalis in the early 1960s. Ray also introduced his famous characters Feluda and Professor Shonku in short stories he wrote for Sandesh.(1)(3)