Shirshendu Mukhopadhyay, the writer , has been to two generations of readers in Bengal a Bengali Robert Frost, Stephen King, O.Henry and Edgar Allan Poe rolled into one, and his fascination continues to hold. In this the first part of a new series on writers and films that have inspired our lives , I talk of this octogenarian writer and the influence he has had on me to look at middle age afresh. You too are free to share with me ,at the email address [email protected], who has been your own inspiration in life , and which film or piece of literature has had an influence on your behaviour . Shirshendu Mukhopadhyay's stories continue to bring goosebumps to the old and the young alike, and I hope this small introduction to one of his works (some of which are available in translations )helps you get interested and inspires you to discover this writer who is relatively unknown outside Bengal in India, but whose novellas have inspired numerous Tollywood movies and remain an annual craze inside Bengal, slithering smoothly across the borders of fantasy and science fiction as well as reality , delving as few have ever managed to, into the workings of virtually every kind of mind that either old or young may possess and every experience that they might come across, with a rarity and immediacy, and humour , that few writers in India or beyond may possess.