Bal Phondke (born 22 April 1939) is the

pen name A pen name, also called a ''nom de plume'' or a literary double, is a pseudonym (or, in some cases, a variant form of a real name) adopted by an author and printed on the title page or by-line of their works in place of their real name. A pen na ...

of Dr Gajanan Phondke, a leading

Marathi Marathi may refer to: *Marathi people, an Indo-Aryan ethnolinguistic group of Maharashtra, India *Marathi language, the Indo-Aryan language spoken by the Marathi people *Palaiosouda, also known as Marathi, a small island in Greece See also * * ...

writer of science literature (

fiction Fiction is any creative work, chiefly any narrative work, portraying individuals, events, or places that are imaginary, or in ways that are imaginary. Fictional portrayals are thus inconsistent with history, fact, or plausibility. In a traditi ...

and non-fiction). He is credited in part to have started the science fiction genre of writing in

Marathi literature Marathi literature is the body of literature of Marathi, an Indo-Aryan language spoken mainly in the Indian state of Maharashtra and written in the Devanagari and Modi script. History Ancient Era Maharashtri Prakrit was the southern Prakrit tha ...

. Alongside Dr. Jayant Narlikar's science fiction work Baal Phondke's works had a cult following in a generation of readers in Maharashtra. He worked as a nuclear biologist at the

Bhabha Atomic Research Centre The Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) is India's premier nuclear research facility, headquartered in Trombay, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India. It was founded by Homi Jehangir Bhabha as the Atomic Energy Establishment, Trombay (AEET) in January 195 ...

from 1962 to 1983. From 1983 to 1989, he was with the Times of India, serving as the Editor of

Science Today magazine Science is a systematic endeavor that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe. Science may be as old as the human species, and some of the earliest archeological evidence for ...

and also as the science editor of ''

The Times of India ''The Times of India'', also known by its abbreviation ''TOI'', is an Indian English-language daily newspaper and digital news media owned and managed by The Times Group. It is the third-largest newspaper in India by circulation and largest ...

'' broadsheet. He later served as the director of the Publications and Information Directorate of CSIR (

Council of Scientific and Industrial Research The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (IAST: ''vaigyanik tathā audyogik anusandhāna pariṣada''), abbreviated as CSIR, was established by the Government of India in September 1942 as an autonomous body that has emerged as the l ...

), retiring in 1999. After retirement, he served as a guide for various universities and also wrote science articles for several publications. Bal Phondke has also published books on fun with mathematics.

References

1939 births Living people Indian science fiction writers {{India-writer-stub