U. Ray and Sons

'A camera and various pieces of half-tone equipment [arrived] from Britain [...] by bullock cart; soon after that, they moved out of 13 Cornwallis Street to a house not far away at Shibnarain Dass Lane, which Upendrakisore had made into a residence-cum-business premises, including a studio.

U. Ray begs leave to state that by his new method of half-tone engraving he is prepared to give result as very few persons in the world have hitherto produced.

Starting in 1897, Upendrakishore wrote a number of articles in the best-known British printing journal of the time, Penrose Annual, based on his researches.

While Siddhartha Ghosh[4] in his essay on Sukumar Ray's Abol Tabol tells us that Upendrakishore patented a gadget known as the 'automatic screen adjustment indicator' which was sold as an optional accessory to the Penrose company's process camera, Andrew Robinson quotes a Penrose Annual issue in which its London editor explains a lack of articles by Mr. U. Ray as an outcome of ill health and further informs the printing trade that U. Ray had anticipated by some years the important screen just patented by someone in Britain'[3] and that 'unable to prove his theory in Calcutta for lack of resources, Upendrakisore had appealed to his colleagues in Britain for help and one of them had plagiarised his ideas.

[3] By 1910, the firm was undertaking 'original designs in black and white in colours for tables, books, magazines and catalogue illustrations, show cards, letterheads etc.

'[5] The growth of the firm coincided to Upendrakishore's son Sukumar Ray going abroad on the Guruprasanna Ghosh Scholarship at Presidency College, Calcutta in 1911 to study at the London County Council School of Photoengraving and Lithography.

An integral part of the firm, Sukumar was to take over the running of the press when his father fell ill and his knowledge and technical expertise regarding latest printing techniques, half-tones and multiple stops picked up at LCC and later at the School of Technology at the University of Manchester (where he took the City and Guilds of London Institute Examination and was awarded the first prize) stood him in good stead.

'In his brief preface to the volume, Raychaudhuri writes of a story-telling habit prevalent among household women in certain parts of eastern Bengal [the author probably refers to Mymensingh which had been his desh or native region and a province particularly rich in folklore].

At the end of the day, when little children tend to drop off to sleep before having their suppers, affectionate nurses, mothers, aunts or grandmothers try to keep their sleepy-eyed wards amused with pleasing stories.

The stories are short and entertaining – as would suit the patience and understanding of little folks - and peopled with a stock of native characters: the sprightly tailor-bird, the stupid tiger, the little sparrow, the wily fox, the clever cat, the hunch-back woman or the foolish weaver.

Besides the publications mentioned above, other works published include storybooks written by Kuladaranjan (Satyajit's uncle) and published by U. Ray and Sons who retold the Iliad and the Odyssey in Bengali, and a great many Indian legends and folk-tales; also corresponding with Arthur Conan Doyle's widow and obtaining the rights to translate his works into Bengali gratis.

The money for this came from selling most of his share in the zamindari at his ancestral home in Mymensingh to his foster brother Narendrakisore, who was in charge of it following his father Harikisore's death,’ records Andrew Robinson[3] This promoted the status of the firm from printers to publishers as well, with the printing of the first Sandesh.

In the heat of midday, when Calcutta traffic of all kinds came to a stop, Satyajit would hear the chant of multiplication tables, of reading out loud and, sometimes, the shouts of angry masters.

Ramdohin would solemnly wag his head in agreement, 'Of course, Khoka Babu, of course' and lift Satyajit up to show him the upside-down image of his drawing in the screen of the camera.

The collapse of U. Ray and Sons in 1926 was the result of impracticality on the part of Sukumar's brother Subinay who had been managing it, combined with disloyalty by some of the staff Upendrakisore had trained.

Sound business planning was never one of the priorities of Upendrakisore and his direct descendants, though each demonstrated an ability to combine quality with commercial viability.