Thread by @beastoftraal

The Shimla Meteorological Office announced on Sept.28, 1896 that a massive cyclone would destroy Bengal in two days. People expected the worst, but, Oct.1, after few drops of rain, the sky cleared. How did the cyclone disappear? Only one person knew what happened to the 1/5

2/5 cyclone. He was on a ship to Ceylon. When the ship was threatened by large waves caused by the cyclone, he remembered that his daughter had given him a bottle of Kuntalin hair oil. He remembered reading in The Scientific American that oil floats above the water and calms the

3/5 tension on the surface. In a desperate attempt, he empties the bottle of Kuntalin Hair Oil into the sea! The wild waves caused by the cyclone calm and Calcutta is saved!!
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This short story was titled, "Niruddesher Kahini" (Story of the Untraceable), and was written by

4/5 scientist Jagadish Chandra Bose! He had submitted this story for the Kuntalin Puraskar, (instituted in 1896 by Kuntalin Hair Oil founder, Hemendra Bose), a literary prize with one condition: stories should include Kuntalin Hair Oil in the narrative without making it look

5/5 like an advertisement!

While Niruddesher Kahini is regarded as India's earliest science fiction, Kuntalin Puraskar could be India's first attempt at branded content!

#advertising #marketing #branding

Also TIL: 'kuntal' in Bengali means 'hair'. Couldn't help recall the Tamil word for hair: "koondhal". What a connection!!