A sketch by Satyajit Ray accompanying Bonkubabu's Friend. Pics/harpercollins india

It is a reflection of how they were of a different vintage when you consider that despite meeting each other only once in their lives, filmmaker Satyajit Ray and science fiction writer Arthur C Clarke maintained a bond with each other, corresponding via letters, till the day Ray died over 25 years later. The roots of their friendship lay in a shared love for sci-fi, a genre Ray dabbled in actively with his literary exploits. And whenever he did, the master auteur would seek the response of Clarke, in who he found the most able confidant he could hope for. But, there had once been a point of slight friction. It had concerned The Alien, a film that Ray hoped to make in Hollywood. The movie eventually failed to see the light of day, however. And now a new book — Travails With the Alien (HarperCollins India) — documents the reasons why it failed to take off, and how it almost caused a dent in the bond between the two geniuses.