Manto - Selected Short Stories (MSSS) translated by Aatish Taseer is a good collection covering some of the author's famous stories. He wrote over 250 in his short life of 42 years, the last seven of which were spent in Lahore, after emigrating to Pakistan in Jan 1948.
Manto considered himself a Bombay writer, living and writing in close association with the city’s film industry for which he wrote stories and scripts. He had many close friends among film actors, and became a good friend of Ismat Chugtai, the woman short story writer for whom he had a high regard. She, like him, doubled as a screenplay writer for Bombay films. The amazing talent that the Bombay film industry drew at that time (and still draws) from all over India is the principal reason for its vitality.
Manto considered himself a Bombay writer, living and writing in close association with the city’s film industry for which he wrote stories and scripts. He had many close friends among film actors, and became a good friend of Ismat Chugtai, the woman short story writer for whom he had a high regard. She, like him, doubled as a screenplay writer for Bombay films. The amazing talent that the Bombay film industry drew at that time (and still draws) from all over India is the principal reason for its vitality.
Kochi Reading Group (plus one interloper, Gael)
Geetha, Devika, Kavita, Thommo, Hemjit
Hemjit & Sugandhi with KumKum
Manto wrote about everything and was not afraid to describe the seamy side of life, which he saw as intertwined with the normal surface respectability on the outside. He was a wonderful writer of women characters for whom he had a special empathy; in his public life he upheld the tenet of equality for women. The translator, Aatish Taseer, who learned Urdu in order to translate Manto, makes a significant point about the culture in which Manto was at home:
India must now reclaim men like Manto. In Pakistan, Manto’s world, crowded with Hindus, Sikhs, and Muslims, would feel very foreign. It is only in India, still plural, still symmetrically Hindu, that it continues to have relevance. His eye could only have been an Indian eye, sensitive to surprising detail, compulsively aware of Indian plurality, sympathetic to people trapped in their circumstances, here pointing to a particular Hindu festival, there imitating Bombay street dialect.
Many have considered it a tragedy that Manto went to Pakistan after Partition. His wife Safia explains the perplexity at the time that led to his decision, in the biographical notes below. The real tragedy was that he went to a country that did not appreciate his gifts, that tormented him with obscenity charges (on one occasion the use of the word ‘breasts’ was cited as obscene). Magazine publishers in Lahore routinely paid him on the cheap with bootlegged liquor. For decades he was persona non grata, until on the centenary of his birth the Government of Pakistan decided it was time to bestow an honour, the Nishan-e-Imtiaz medal.
India must now reclaim men like Manto. In Pakistan, Manto’s world, crowded with Hindus, Sikhs, and Muslims, would feel very foreign. It is only in India, still plural, still symmetrically Hindu, that it continues to have relevance. His eye could only have been an Indian eye, sensitive to surprising detail, compulsively aware of Indian plurality, sympathetic to people trapped in their circumstances, here pointing to a particular Hindu festival, there imitating Bombay street dialect.
Many have considered it a tragedy that Manto went to Pakistan after Partition. His wife Safia explains the perplexity at the time that led to his decision, in the biographical notes below. The real tragedy was that he went to a country that did not appreciate his gifts, that tormented him with obscenity charges (on one occasion the use of the word ‘breasts’ was cited as obscene). Magazine publishers in Lahore routinely paid him on the cheap with bootlegged liquor. For decades he was persona non grata, until on the centenary of his birth the Government of Pakistan decided it was time to bestow an honour, the Nishan-e-Imtiaz medal.
Hemjit, Zakia, Saras, KumKum with birthday goodies - marble cake, samosas, and round Ferrero Rocher chocolates
Manto raised the issue of which side will own what part of the language and culture of north India.
“Will Pakistan’s literature be separate from that of India’s? If so, how? Who owns all that was written in undivided India? Will that be partitioned too? Are India’s and Pakistan’s core problems not the same? Will Urdu be totally wiped out in India? What shape will it take in Pakistan? Will our state be a religious one?”
One thing we can assert with confidence. Urdu was never extinguished in India, but perhaps suffered a decline after the decades when poet-writers like Sahir Ludhianvi and Shakeel Badayuni provided lyrics for songs and dialogues for films. Now mushairas are once again alive in the North and even woman shayars like Malka Naseem, are being recognised in the country (see from 2:55 onwards of https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ILKNHjiofb8). The young college folk are showing renewed interest in listening to Urdu poets at gatherings.
Here is a group picture of the readers at the end of the session:
“Will Pakistan’s literature be separate from that of India’s? If so, how? Who owns all that was written in undivided India? Will that be partitioned too? Are India’s and Pakistan’s core problems not the same? Will Urdu be totally wiped out in India? What shape will it take in Pakistan? Will our state be a religious one?”
One thing we can assert with confidence. Urdu was never extinguished in India, but perhaps suffered a decline after the decades when poet-writers like Sahir Ludhianvi and Shakeel Badayuni provided lyrics for songs and dialogues for films. Now mushairas are once again alive in the North and even woman shayars like Malka Naseem, are being recognised in the country (see from 2:55 onwards of https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ILKNHjiofb8). The young college folk are showing renewed interest in listening to Urdu poets at gatherings.
Here is a group picture of the readers at the end of the session:
(standing) Joe, Arundhaty, Sugandhi, Zakia, Devika, Saras, Gael, Geetha, KumKum, Rachel Thommo (seated) Hemjit
