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Manto: Selected Stories
The gentle dhobi who transforms into a killer, a prostitute who is more child than woman, the cocky, young coachman who falls in love at first sight, a father convinced that his son will die before his first birthday. Saadat Hasan Manto's stories are vivid, dangerous and troubling and they slice into the everyday world to reveal its sombre, dark heart.
These stories were written from the mid 30s on, many under the shadow of Partition. No Indian writer since has quite managed to capture the underbelly of Indian life with as much sympathy and colour. In a new translation that for the first time captures the richness of Manto's prose and its combination of high emotion and taut narrative, this is a classic collection from the master of the Indian short story.
These stories were written from the mid 30s on, many under the shadow of Partition. No Indian writer since has quite managed to capture the underbelly of Indian life with as much sympathy and colour. In a new translation that for the first time captures the richness of Manto's prose and its combination of high emotion and taut narrative, this is a classic collection from the master of the Indian short story.
128 pages, Kindle Edition
First published December 1, 2003
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4053 people want to read
About the author
Saadat Hasan Manto
550 books1,117 followersSaadat Hasan Manto (Urdu: سعادت حسن منٹو, Hindi: सआदत हसन मंटो), the most widely read and the most controversial short-story writer in Urdu, was born on 11 May 1912 at Sambrala in Punjab's Ludhiana District. In a writing career spanning over two decades he produced twenty-two collections of short stories, one novel, five collections of radio plays, three collections of essays, two collections of reminiscences and many scripts for films. He was tried for obscenity half a dozen times, thrice before and thrice after independence. Not always was he acquitted. Some of Manto's greatest work was produced in the last seven years of his life, a time of great financial and emotional hardship for him. He died a few months short of his forty-third birthday, in January 1955, in Lahore.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 229 reviews
December 4, 2013
It is possible to review some books without a mention of the context in which they were written, but it is impossible to do so with the works of Saadat Hasan Manto, a writer born in undivided India, who died in Pakistan.
Had he lived, he would have turned 100 last year, but he drank himself to death at the age of 43, eight years after the Partition that created India and Pakistan, after a series of trials where his writing was charged with obscenity. This was one of the best periods of his work, but one of the worst in personal and financial terms.
As such, a lot of history and context is (rightly, or wrongly) read into his work, and one of the simplest ways to understand this in a short span of time would be to read the introduction by Aatish Taseer, Manto’s grandson, who has translated the stories curated into this book.
Taseer has taken great care to retain the rhythm of the original Urdu in his translation, and no reader can deny the resonance of Manto’s voice that comes through. The originals might, I imagine, have a certain colloquial touch to them, like this example from the story, “My Name is Radha“, one of my favorites from this book:
“The studio owner Harmzji Framji, a fat, red-cheeked bon vivant of sorts, was madly in love with a middle-aged actress who looked like a transvestite. His favourite pastime was sizing up the breasts of every newly-arrived actress. Another Muslim hooker from Calcutta’s Bow Bazaar carried on affairs simultaneously with her director, sound recordist, and scriptwriter. The point of these affairs, of course, was to ensure that all three remained in love with her.”
While this reads clunky in English, I can hear it spoken in Urdu (a language I don’t speak, and understand very little of, but admire nevertheless) with a sort of cheekiness and a common touch, which is, imho, fairly impossible to translate.
Manto was writing at a time when a preachy morality was important in the entire sub-continent, and frank sexuality was frowned upon. So it is quite obvious why the author’s matter-of-fact emphasis on the body was interpreted by his contemporary society as lewdness.
Of course a few of his stories can strike us as sentimental, especially those playing heavily on the drama of the Partition of India (and Pakistan), because our sensibilities are used to the spareness of modern fiction.
But the irony of a stray dog in “The Dog of Tithwal” that befriends both enemy camps (Indian and Pakistani) at a border post and is subsequently shot, is not lost on the reader, nor is the pathos of a madman’s refusal (and subsequent death) in “Toba Tek Singh” when an attempt is made to ‘return’ him to his native town, which, after the Partition, no longer lay in Pakistan, but instead in India. In stories like these, Manto questions the very definitions of ‘country’, ‘borders’ and ‘sanity.’
Why you could read it: It is an easy read, and if you are interested in the Indian sub-continent and its history, you could do worse than read this book.
Why you could give it a miss: If you like your fiction to be spare and unsentimental, this book is not for you. As with most translated fiction, the beauty of the original does not fully translate into English, despite the sincerity of the translator.
My crib:
The typos strewn through the book bothered me (e.g. Pg 28- ‘smoth’ instead of ‘smooth’). The book has some instances of repeated words ( e.g. Pg. 20 “fed fed up”) and other proofreading howlers. If they come up with another edition, they need a better proofreader who would do justice to such an important writer of the Indian sub-continent.
---
I enjoyed this book, and if you happen to pick it up, the least you should do is read the introduction, which is a modern piece of extremely educational writing, and no less poignant for it. You would not be disappointed, I promise you that.
After I read up on Manto, I realized that he has been marginalized in India, to the extent that I had never heard of him growing up, or even as an adult, and had not read him before this book.
All Indian and Pakistani readers deserve to read more of this writer, because the issues that informed Manto’s work continue to be relevant in the society and politics of both these countries.
It is a shame that this author is not better known in India, and kudos to Random House in attempting to change that.
Only, the next time, I wish they would hire a proofreader worth their time.
Had he lived, he would have turned 100 last year, but he drank himself to death at the age of 43, eight years after the Partition that created India and Pakistan, after a series of trials where his writing was charged with obscenity. This was one of the best periods of his work, but one of the worst in personal and financial terms.
As such, a lot of history and context is (rightly, or wrongly) read into his work, and one of the simplest ways to understand this in a short span of time would be to read the introduction by Aatish Taseer, Manto’s grandson, who has translated the stories curated into this book.
Taseer has taken great care to retain the rhythm of the original Urdu in his translation, and no reader can deny the resonance of Manto’s voice that comes through. The originals might, I imagine, have a certain colloquial touch to them, like this example from the story, “My Name is Radha“, one of my favorites from this book:
“The studio owner Harmzji Framji, a fat, red-cheeked bon vivant of sorts, was madly in love with a middle-aged actress who looked like a transvestite. His favourite pastime was sizing up the breasts of every newly-arrived actress. Another Muslim hooker from Calcutta’s Bow Bazaar carried on affairs simultaneously with her director, sound recordist, and scriptwriter. The point of these affairs, of course, was to ensure that all three remained in love with her.”
While this reads clunky in English, I can hear it spoken in Urdu (a language I don’t speak, and understand very little of, but admire nevertheless) with a sort of cheekiness and a common touch, which is, imho, fairly impossible to translate.
Manto was writing at a time when a preachy morality was important in the entire sub-continent, and frank sexuality was frowned upon. So it is quite obvious why the author’s matter-of-fact emphasis on the body was interpreted by his contemporary society as lewdness.
Of course a few of his stories can strike us as sentimental, especially those playing heavily on the drama of the Partition of India (and Pakistan), because our sensibilities are used to the spareness of modern fiction.
But the irony of a stray dog in “The Dog of Tithwal” that befriends both enemy camps (Indian and Pakistani) at a border post and is subsequently shot, is not lost on the reader, nor is the pathos of a madman’s refusal (and subsequent death) in “Toba Tek Singh” when an attempt is made to ‘return’ him to his native town, which, after the Partition, no longer lay in Pakistan, but instead in India. In stories like these, Manto questions the very definitions of ‘country’, ‘borders’ and ‘sanity.’
Why you could read it: It is an easy read, and if you are interested in the Indian sub-continent and its history, you could do worse than read this book.
Why you could give it a miss: If you like your fiction to be spare and unsentimental, this book is not for you. As with most translated fiction, the beauty of the original does not fully translate into English, despite the sincerity of the translator.
My crib:
The typos strewn through the book bothered me (e.g. Pg 28- ‘smoth’ instead of ‘smooth’). The book has some instances of repeated words ( e.g. Pg. 20 “fed fed up”) and other proofreading howlers. If they come up with another edition, they need a better proofreader who would do justice to such an important writer of the Indian sub-continent.
---
I enjoyed this book, and if you happen to pick it up, the least you should do is read the introduction, which is a modern piece of extremely educational writing, and no less poignant for it. You would not be disappointed, I promise you that.
After I read up on Manto, I realized that he has been marginalized in India, to the extent that I had never heard of him growing up, or even as an adult, and had not read him before this book.
All Indian and Pakistani readers deserve to read more of this writer, because the issues that informed Manto’s work continue to be relevant in the society and politics of both these countries.
It is a shame that this author is not better known in India, and kudos to Random House in attempting to change that.
Only, the next time, I wish they would hire a proofreader worth their time.
August 12, 2017
At one level, there is a method to Manto's writing which recalls the time-tested recipe to construct good-old, rounded short stories:
1) Out of the many characters in the story, keep the narrative focus on a single one, could be a postman or a dwarf. (R. K. Narayan understood this too well.)
2) Introduce an action/conflict in which everyone is involved and which leads somewhere. Your characters need not leave the room if you so wish.
3) Throw in the details of the contemporary milieu.
4) Provide character or historic anecdotes to set a context.
5) All the characters should be fleshed out, and not present simply to justify a scenario or an action, or to act as a punching bag for the main character. It's just that the focus is on A right now and B is given less space in the narrative. Should we change the focus a little bit, B could have his own story with A in the background. Every person is an island.
6) If you show a gun on the wall, it must be fired before the story ends. (Chekhov's timeless advice. It is still the easiest way to create a sense of continuity in the reader's mind. Of course, you don't always need a gun!)
It's not just an old-style, moth-eaten recipe. A similar way of constructing can be observed in Daniyal Mueenuddin's recent writing as well. It works if done well is what I mean. And shines when done too well, like in this collection.
Manto sometimes seems unplanned and rambling (very strongly in "My name is Radha"), but there is a pattern that emerge in each narrative that leaves you in shock. His stare is direct, he is never sentimental, even when describing the partition; he writes with great understanding but does not shy away to find comedy at unlikely places. In a story titled "For Freedom", one of the protesters in a rally against the British got so excited that he removed his shirt and threw it in the bonfire that was lit to boycott foreign clothing, but later regretted because with the shirt he also threw away two gold ornaments that were in his pocket.
Every story in this collection throbs with life. There is a sense of foreboding in the narrative, even when Manto is describing something as pleasant as a newborn crawling on a well-cleaned floor. I don't think that comes out of technique. It is much more mysterious, something that crawls out of his person and makes way into the prose through his emaciated fingers.
1) Out of the many characters in the story, keep the narrative focus on a single one, could be a postman or a dwarf. (R. K. Narayan understood this too well.)
2) Introduce an action/conflict in which everyone is involved and which leads somewhere. Your characters need not leave the room if you so wish.
3) Throw in the details of the contemporary milieu.
4) Provide character or historic anecdotes to set a context.
5) All the characters should be fleshed out, and not present simply to justify a scenario or an action, or to act as a punching bag for the main character. It's just that the focus is on A right now and B is given less space in the narrative. Should we change the focus a little bit, B could have his own story with A in the background. Every person is an island.
6) If you show a gun on the wall, it must be fired before the story ends. (Chekhov's timeless advice. It is still the easiest way to create a sense of continuity in the reader's mind. Of course, you don't always need a gun!)
It's not just an old-style, moth-eaten recipe. A similar way of constructing can be observed in Daniyal Mueenuddin's recent writing as well. It works if done well is what I mean. And shines when done too well, like in this collection.
Manto sometimes seems unplanned and rambling (very strongly in "My name is Radha"), but there is a pattern that emerge in each narrative that leaves you in shock. His stare is direct, he is never sentimental, even when describing the partition; he writes with great understanding but does not shy away to find comedy at unlikely places. In a story titled "For Freedom", one of the protesters in a rally against the British got so excited that he removed his shirt and threw it in the bonfire that was lit to boycott foreign clothing, but later regretted because with the shirt he also threw away two gold ornaments that were in his pocket.
Every story in this collection throbs with life. There is a sense of foreboding in the narrative, even when Manto is describing something as pleasant as a newborn crawling on a well-cleaned floor. I don't think that comes out of technique. It is much more mysterious, something that crawls out of his person and makes way into the prose through his emaciated fingers.
February 19, 2016
That he could be a rascal and at the same time an extremely honest and honorable man, how could that be? I didn't even try to understand. This was Manto's territory.
Saadat Hasan Manto, much like many of sub-continental regional writers, is largely forgotten by most of India, except perhaps by a few literary readers. I, myself, brought up in the southern most part of this vast country was never made to know him until my early twenties. Whenever partition as a topic was evoked, Manto's name appeared in articles written in a Sunday supplementary of an elite English newspaper which has the name of a dominant religion. Of course, we promptly ignored the supplementary. And, along with that Manto as well.
Like all urban educated, English-speaking youngsters, I too had no clue of what I am leaving behind untouched until, too recently, I got acquainted with a Kashmiri friend who would one day go on to say, with no reserve or politeness, "If you do not know the stories of your own land, of what right you have to sing high praise of those writers who are foreign and alien?". With that began my search for all those Indian writers I have left unnoticed, uncared; and also those stories that I have failed to listen in poetry, art and literature.
This particular work of short stories contains ten gems assorted and elegantly translated by Aatish Taseer. Like me, he had no clue of what a treasure trove of a country we are born in. But, unlike me, he has a much bigger burden - that he is a descendant of famous Urdu poet M.D.Taseer
. His past; his lineage; his blood; his identity is so much interwoven with the language of Urdu which he only wanted to read, not write.
"You can't take a language, break it into pieces, take what you like and leave the rest"
It was his teacher Zafar Moradabadi, to whom this book is rightly dedicated, and taught Aatish the language of Urdu for a paltry sum of Rs.5000 per month, who brought him to learn the language to both write and read. And, thanks to him, we have an excellent rendition of Manto's stories, without losing their beauty, nuances, and detail. More importantly, Aatish leaves the story as pleasurable as they should be, that right along as you submerge yourself in it, you are often left with a gasping wonder and a flawless smile.
Manto's stories explore the darkest side of a human being without making them look ugly, vulgar or revolting. You are left with a restlessness, but never does his writing make you regret for spending your time on them. There is a darkness exposed, but that is not a void or an emptiness. They are just like a mirror we hold in front of us, yet a mirror that tells the truth which we do not want to say to ourselves. He reveals our imperfection, hypocrisy, delusions. If only one takes a much closer look to discover that underneath all his words there is a sublime cry to accept humans as what they are, and also a soft voice that celebrates life in all its sensuality and beauty.
The protagonists of each story resemble all those around us, whom we should have noticed but failed. Ten Rupees is about an unusually happy day in the life of a prostitute who is in her early teens, innocent and still a child. Khal Do, set in the backdrop of partition, would leave you teary eyed and might give you a sleepless night, tells you about the gruesomeness of the bloody event, and stands witness that it was not only nations that were ripped apart. Smell explores sensuality in an altogether different manner and makes a reminder that sex is not completely physical, at least not for us humans.
It is the Blouse and For Freedom that remains so intimate to me. The first one goes courageously into the never-explored terrain of the sexual awakening, the tumultuous times of puberty in a teenage boy. Here, Manto takes fantasy to his stride and plays with them at will, creating a new understanding into a subject that is not much spoken in literature. The latter one, For Freedom is a story that has left me totally bewitched. For someone like me, who is so much interested in political science and has spent a greater part of her life reading the history of India's Freedom Struggle and political developments, and for whom the ideas of Nehru appeals more than that of the idea of Gandhi, this story is an intellectual treat. Here, Manto takes a sarcastic dig at the ideas of Gandhi, especially his call for asceticism. It requires a rare courage to write a story questioning and mocking the ideas of a man, who was swooned and worshiped by people then, and sincerely I say, Manto was too much way ahead of its time.
"When I look back now, Babaji, Nigar, Ghulam Ali, the beautiful panditani and Amritsar’s entire atmosphere at that time, infused with the romance of the independence movement, appear to me like a dream, a dream which, once dreamt, begs to be dreamt again.
Attaining independence was, without a doubt, the right thing to do and I could understand it if a man should die in attaining it, but that some poor wretch should be defanged, made as benign as a vegetable for its sake— this was utterly beyond my comprehension. Living in huts, forsaking bodily comforts, singing God’s praises, shouting patriotic slogans— all this was fine, but to slowly deaden one’s senses, one’s bodily desires— what was meant by that? What was left of a man in whom the longing for beauty and drama had died?"
As I was reading this book, there was a flaming controversy going on at the heart of this country, at its capital city. It is all about the arrest of a young student, Kanhaiya Kumar for raising sane voice, within the campus, against the ruling party in power. There is a great outrage, mob raids to the institution, Jawaharlal Nehru University, in which Mr.Kumar is the student Union leader. To top it all, he was booked under the much-outdated sedition act. As I went through the list of people who were charged with sedition, I learnt that the law has been used repeatedly against writers, cartoonists, and students. And, simultaneously, my mind kept coming back to Manto. Manto was then charged with six obscene cases, and repeated trials (one of such a trial for the usage of his word Breast). The trials killed and sucked the writer out of him, and pushed him to take comfort in alcohol that eventually destroyed him.
And, suddenly, I remembered, it is not only Aatish Taseer who has the burden to serve the language his grandfather has nurtured, but even I am burdened too. The language, the identity, and the culture, which let a short story writer to mock and question the ideas of the man who was called Mahatma by most of his people, is my burden too. A little more careful pondering and realization would throw more truth that it is not actually a burden but a rare gift, which needs to be protected and passed on for all the generations to come. I strongly believe that Manto and this country deserves it. Hope tells me that it is not too much to ask.
P.S: A great many thanks to Jibran (https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/5...) and for the wonderful conversation* he had with me, where he recommended me this book. Another a reason why I love goodreads and almost all people I make as friends here :)
* https://www.goodreads.com/user_status...
November 15, 2018
Beautiful isn't the word for Manto's stories. They create a sense of meaning and space of their own! Manto has his own way with words & lives. His apparently plain, simple narratives would startle you every now and then and leave you at wonder~
Very few writers could offer you that! He chronicled the minuteness of lives who exist at the margins of society with their nondescript, ordinary way - yet they stand out as bold & significant!
Very few writers could offer you that! He chronicled the minuteness of lives who exist at the margins of society with their nondescript, ordinary way - yet they stand out as bold & significant!
March 27, 2018
The author was charged six times for obscenity during his lifetime but never convicted (in relation to his writing, that is, in case you get the idea he was some kind of flasher). Perhaps it was due to the times or the society in which he lived, because I didn't really see anything obscene in the stories here, at least not something you wouldn't see in countless other widely read novels, although there did seem to be a slight bit of fascination with women's armpit hair.
The collection is brutal, though. Brutally honest and told in a brutally straightforward style. The story 'Khol Do' is a case in point. Manto doesn't bother to mince his words or embellish his prose with pretty lyricisms to soften the harsh realities of life as he saw it. A common theme running through most of the stories is hypocrisy. Manto shines the harsh light of truth on the various hypocrisies and self-delusions in which people indulge. I'm not sure many will find this work or the writing style appealing but I'm certainly glad I read it.
The collection is brutal, though. Brutally honest and told in a brutally straightforward style. The story 'Khol Do' is a case in point. Manto doesn't bother to mince his words or embellish his prose with pretty lyricisms to soften the harsh realities of life as he saw it. A common theme running through most of the stories is hypocrisy. Manto shines the harsh light of truth on the various hypocrisies and self-delusions in which people indulge. I'm not sure many will find this work or the writing style appealing but I'm certainly glad I read it.
April 20, 2018
A feast, and it deserves a complete review! ❤
January 12, 2023
Manto you magnificent ❤️
December 28, 2021
Nothing and no one can ever truly come close to Manto’s prowess as a writer of short stories.
I remember reading “Khol Do” and “Toba Tek Singh” during my undergrad years, and I was shocked by the intensity that could be packed within a few pages. Both the stories bore scars that had been afflicted during the Partition, and by not saying anything, they said a lot.
I think that’s the magic of Manto. His stories don’t explicitly say anything, but by the time you reach the last page, you become aware of the truth and the horror embedded in his words. It’s like a jigsaw puzzle that can only be deciphered when the last piece is put in place. Manto’s way of describing people and places is also unparalleled. There is barely anything memorable in the descriptions - I mean, you won’t be able to remember the descriptions after you’ve read them, but while reading it, you will definitely be able to visualise it. This is a power that very few writers inhabit.
This particular collection of short stories, translated by Aatish Taseer, contains some of the more famous works of Manto. It’s a wide-ranging selection because it covers some major topics on which Manto primarily wrote - Partition, sexuality, grief, romance, resilience, religion, philosophy. Also, I may not be able to comment on the accuracy of the translations, but Taseer has done a wonderful job. The emotions that the stories evoked - I literally had tears in my eyes after reading Ram Khilavan and the Dog of Tithwal - are a testimony to the worthiness of the translation.
Everyone and anyone should read Manto. I ardently believe that his stories should be a part of school syllabus, specially because of the contentious issues that are dealt in it. But, fair warning, his stories are not for the weak-hearted. Please do read it, if you can.
I remember reading “Khol Do” and “Toba Tek Singh” during my undergrad years, and I was shocked by the intensity that could be packed within a few pages. Both the stories bore scars that had been afflicted during the Partition, and by not saying anything, they said a lot.
I think that’s the magic of Manto. His stories don’t explicitly say anything, but by the time you reach the last page, you become aware of the truth and the horror embedded in his words. It’s like a jigsaw puzzle that can only be deciphered when the last piece is put in place. Manto’s way of describing people and places is also unparalleled. There is barely anything memorable in the descriptions - I mean, you won’t be able to remember the descriptions after you’ve read them, but while reading it, you will definitely be able to visualise it. This is a power that very few writers inhabit.
This particular collection of short stories, translated by Aatish Taseer, contains some of the more famous works of Manto. It’s a wide-ranging selection because it covers some major topics on which Manto primarily wrote - Partition, sexuality, grief, romance, resilience, religion, philosophy. Also, I may not be able to comment on the accuracy of the translations, but Taseer has done a wonderful job. The emotions that the stories evoked - I literally had tears in my eyes after reading Ram Khilavan and the Dog of Tithwal - are a testimony to the worthiness of the translation.
Everyone and anyone should read Manto. I ardently believe that his stories should be a part of school syllabus, specially because of the contentious issues that are dealt in it. But, fair warning, his stories are not for the weak-hearted. Please do read it, if you can.
February 16, 2017
This is a collection of ten of Manto's most well known stories, translated by Aatish Taseer. The translation is occasionally a bit off and the meaning not always clear, giving the general impression of reading better in the original language, Urdu. The introduction is a good addition to the book, I felt, expressing a general love for Urdu. I am tempted to learn Urdu now.
Manto is a delightful writer, the stories are intense and crisp. They are mostly straight forward and easy to read but contain great nuance. Manto deals expertly with sexual themes- there is no excessive euphemism or unnecessarily florid language, something a lot of very accomplished authors falter at.
This is a very elementary collection, 10 in number and of 130 pages in total. Most of the stories set in pre-independence Bombay, a couple set during or after the partition. My favourite was Ram Khilawan, because it holds a lot of relevance today, more than the others.
Manto is a must-read, if only at least his most famous stories as in this collection. The stories are: Ten Rupees, Blouse, Khol Do, Khaled Mian, My Name is Radha, Ram Khilavan, Licence, The Mice of Shah Daulah, For Freedom, Smell.
Manto is a delightful writer, the stories are intense and crisp. They are mostly straight forward and easy to read but contain great nuance. Manto deals expertly with sexual themes- there is no excessive euphemism or unnecessarily florid language, something a lot of very accomplished authors falter at.
This is a very elementary collection, 10 in number and of 130 pages in total. Most of the stories set in pre-independence Bombay, a couple set during or after the partition. My favourite was Ram Khilawan, because it holds a lot of relevance today, more than the others.
Manto is a must-read, if only at least his most famous stories as in this collection. The stories are: Ten Rupees, Blouse, Khol Do, Khaled Mian, My Name is Radha, Ram Khilavan, Licence, The Mice of Shah Daulah, For Freedom, Smell.
June 27, 2020
Mind blowing! A simple narrative, yet what a powerful message in each short story. I finished the book in one sitting and now I want to read Manto in his and my native language Urdu
November 27, 2018
Somewhere in these 10 short stories, I found myself thinking about these characters more than I wanted to. They had me wanting to pull at my own short stories, the old ones I had written when I had time and ambition left in my fingers, and wanted me to write my own characters, with their own mysterious endings. But, above all, they had me thinking about how good of an observer I really was not as compared to Manto. This short story collection is fiction. But, is it? When Manto pulls in and out of his stories, writes them with the fresh detail that one could only write with if experienced, and spends words like they are gold, is it really fiction? Or somewhere do we find ourselves in these stories?
I'll first start with how I discovered this book before I get into the gritty details of the collection and its contents. I was procrastinating on my work and watching an interview with noted actress, Shalini Pandey discussing her favorite authors. Her serious expression when discussing Manto's work enticed me into downloading this collection onto my Kindle; the serious looking cover had me simply peep into the first pages of the stories. And, that peep spilled into an undying appreciation for Manto. These stories will confuse you. I've had to look up endings to so many, just to understand if the connotation I understood was actually true or if I had misinterpreted with a despicable thought. Once you realize the connotation is true, you think then about how everything clicks in your mind. The stories never end with a giant moment, they just end as all good stories do. They end without really ending.
I was going to review the stories in detail, but I think to even reveal the plot to some stories would be to create an expectation which I do not wish to create. So, here are my favorites: Ten Rupees, Khol Do, Khaled Mian, My Name is Radha, Licence, and The Mice of Shah Daulah. Out of these, two are especially notable for me: Khol Do and My Name is Radha.
Khol Do is a fairly short "short story" but the effect it leaves on the reader is long. My friends had met up with me minutes after I finished this story and I could not even come back to reality after finishing the story for an hour. Even with the cloud of laughter around me, my mind kept lingering around this story, thinking about the trauma it intends. It really did unhinge me.
My Name is Radha is more lighthearted in a way, but it was the story I most related to. I understood Radha, I saw myself in her. In fact, every woman has a little bit of Radha- the sexy, wild woman who wants a man she can't have for a thrill. The high of being sensual, it's another persona in itself. I seriously projected myself onto this story, because we all know a Radha, and sometimes we all are a Radha.
Manto, my new all-time favorite.
I'll first start with how I discovered this book before I get into the gritty details of the collection and its contents. I was procrastinating on my work and watching an interview with noted actress, Shalini Pandey discussing her favorite authors. Her serious expression when discussing Manto's work enticed me into downloading this collection onto my Kindle; the serious looking cover had me simply peep into the first pages of the stories. And, that peep spilled into an undying appreciation for Manto. These stories will confuse you. I've had to look up endings to so many, just to understand if the connotation I understood was actually true or if I had misinterpreted with a despicable thought. Once you realize the connotation is true, you think then about how everything clicks in your mind. The stories never end with a giant moment, they just end as all good stories do. They end without really ending.
I was going to review the stories in detail, but I think to even reveal the plot to some stories would be to create an expectation which I do not wish to create. So, here are my favorites: Ten Rupees, Khol Do, Khaled Mian, My Name is Radha, Licence, and The Mice of Shah Daulah. Out of these, two are especially notable for me: Khol Do and My Name is Radha.
Khol Do is a fairly short "short story" but the effect it leaves on the reader is long. My friends had met up with me minutes after I finished this story and I could not even come back to reality after finishing the story for an hour. Even with the cloud of laughter around me, my mind kept lingering around this story, thinking about the trauma it intends. It really did unhinge me.
My Name is Radha is more lighthearted in a way, but it was the story I most related to. I understood Radha, I saw myself in her. In fact, every woman has a little bit of Radha- the sexy, wild woman who wants a man she can't have for a thrill. The high of being sensual, it's another persona in itself. I seriously projected myself onto this story, because we all know a Radha, and sometimes we all are a Radha.
Manto, my new all-time favorite.
April 20, 2019
'Manto's stories may have been written half a centuries ago, but they strike the heart as cleany as ever...Unforgettable'.
This description of Saadat Hasan Manto by Ismat Chughtai through the essay 'My Friend, My Enemy', tries to decipher what Manto was and she says:
That he could be a rascal and at the same time an extremely honest and honourable man, how could that be? I didn't even try to understand. This was Manto's territory. From the jilted squalor and refuse of life, he picks out pearls. He enjoys digging in the refuse because he doesn't trust the luminaries of the world; he doesn't trust their brilliance or their judgement. He catches the thieves that lie in the hearts of their pure and respectable wives. And he compares them to the purity in the heart of a whore in a brothel.
He describes India and Pakistan so humbly that he says, Try as I did, I wasn't able to seperate Pakistan from India and India from Pakistan. This statement requires deep thought. As much as one would like to seperate Manto the writer from Manto the man, it is not always easy to do so.
Aatish Taseer's sensitive translation captures the lyricism and power of Manto's voice.
This description of Saadat Hasan Manto by Ismat Chughtai through the essay 'My Friend, My Enemy', tries to decipher what Manto was and she says:
That he could be a rascal and at the same time an extremely honest and honourable man, how could that be? I didn't even try to understand. This was Manto's territory. From the jilted squalor and refuse of life, he picks out pearls. He enjoys digging in the refuse because he doesn't trust the luminaries of the world; he doesn't trust their brilliance or their judgement. He catches the thieves that lie in the hearts of their pure and respectable wives. And he compares them to the purity in the heart of a whore in a brothel.
He describes India and Pakistan so humbly that he says, Try as I did, I wasn't able to seperate Pakistan from India and India from Pakistan. This statement requires deep thought. As much as one would like to seperate Manto the writer from Manto the man, it is not always easy to do so.
Aatish Taseer's sensitive translation captures the lyricism and power of Manto's voice.
October 18, 2022
Firstly Manto was a genius! He had his way with words where he lets the reader's imagination fill in the absent linkages, for the good or bad. I respect authors that can take the grim actuality & characterise its seedy underbelly in its raw form. It's a welcome break from getting lost in fantastical elements & forming to believe everything is sunshine & roses.
1) A minor girl Sarita is pushed into prostitution by her mama. Sarita, a fifteen-year-old, is unwary of the position she is in & instead relishes expeditions with rich men in their cars out of childish naïveté. When three young fellows pay her pimp to bring her with them, it concludes with an unforeseen turn.
2) Momin is a fifteen or perhaps sixteen-year-old house help in the deputy officer's abode. He has lately begun feeling the manifestations of puberty but doesn't know what to do. Impacted by the raging hormonal transformations, he becomes fascinated with the blouse of his employer's daughter.
3) Brutality during the partition of India was & still is a highly contentious topic. Manto Saab managed to give voice to the suffering of the ordinary man using a story of a man scouring for his missing daughter after he fled on a train. It has suppressed implications about the repressed bestiality of man, including but not confined to the people we trust.
4) An incident from the author's own life inspired this story. But it's not possible to make a straightforward analogy to it. Even then, constructing assumptions about it would be regarded as bad faith.
5) Related from the standpoint of Saadat, a clerk who dabbles in script writing for B-grade cinema. Radha, a new actress, falls for the star actor Raj Kishore. Raj Kishore is described as having a well-proportioned & attractive body but is also a staunch illustration of a loyal man whose character never strays away from his missis. Despite repeated whiffs by Radha, he budges not a bit. The author here has tried to characterise the opposite sex griped by the thirst of infatuation & the lengths they will go to quench their thirst. Promiscuity was considered taboo back then & still is in some communities. But the author still gave a voice to such ladies who, back in the day, probably had to wear a garb of chastity.
6) Another partition story that involves a washerman & a nameless main character only referred to as Saab. The Saab could very well be a placeholder for the writer Manto himself as he vamoosed for Pakistan upon the partition of India. An act of kindness by the nameless character's missis turns pivotal in securing the safety of the said character.
7) Upon the demise of her carriage driver hubby, young Nesti is proposed to by various individuals who only desire her youthful body. Fed up, she resolves to drive the carriage herself & earn an honourable living. But even here, she discovers that her patrons only pursue to be with her. But the worse is yet to come. The woman is objectified even though she desires not, unlike many modern women who willingly objectify themselves to profit & then cry wolf.
8) A childless lady is persuaded by her friend to visit the sanctum of a saint & offer her entreaties. The catch is that her firstborn would have a small head & the shrine keepers have a claim over it. Story aside, the "Rats" of Shah Daulah are very much real & controversial.
9) A story with implications on how Gandhi's tactics were a complete letdown in attaining the sovereignty of India. The character in the story goes as far as to say that stunts of abstinence will bring neither God nor freedom, & I completely agree with him. I could go on & on, but then the review would wander away from the story & erupt into a volcano that will keep spewing lava.
10) A dramatic transition from all the earlier stories. In this, a casanova character reminisces about the moments when he slept with a fetid factory worker, after making love to his wife.
1) A minor girl Sarita is pushed into prostitution by her mama. Sarita, a fifteen-year-old, is unwary of the position she is in & instead relishes expeditions with rich men in their cars out of childish naïveté. When three young fellows pay her pimp to bring her with them, it concludes with an unforeseen turn.
2) Momin is a fifteen or perhaps sixteen-year-old house help in the deputy officer's abode. He has lately begun feeling the manifestations of puberty but doesn't know what to do. Impacted by the raging hormonal transformations, he becomes fascinated with the blouse of his employer's daughter.
3) Brutality during the partition of India was & still is a highly contentious topic. Manto Saab managed to give voice to the suffering of the ordinary man using a story of a man scouring for his missing daughter after he fled on a train. It has suppressed implications about the repressed bestiality of man, including but not confined to the people we trust.
4) An incident from the author's own life inspired this story. But it's not possible to make a straightforward analogy to it. Even then, constructing assumptions about it would be regarded as bad faith.
5) Related from the standpoint of Saadat, a clerk who dabbles in script writing for B-grade cinema. Radha, a new actress, falls for the star actor Raj Kishore. Raj Kishore is described as having a well-proportioned & attractive body but is also a staunch illustration of a loyal man whose character never strays away from his missis. Despite repeated whiffs by Radha, he budges not a bit. The author here has tried to characterise the opposite sex griped by the thirst of infatuation & the lengths they will go to quench their thirst. Promiscuity was considered taboo back then & still is in some communities. But the author still gave a voice to such ladies who, back in the day, probably had to wear a garb of chastity.
6) Another partition story that involves a washerman & a nameless main character only referred to as Saab. The Saab could very well be a placeholder for the writer Manto himself as he vamoosed for Pakistan upon the partition of India. An act of kindness by the nameless character's missis turns pivotal in securing the safety of the said character.
7) Upon the demise of her carriage driver hubby, young Nesti is proposed to by various individuals who only desire her youthful body. Fed up, she resolves to drive the carriage herself & earn an honourable living. But even here, she discovers that her patrons only pursue to be with her. But the worse is yet to come. The woman is objectified even though she desires not, unlike many modern women who willingly objectify themselves to profit & then cry wolf.
8) A childless lady is persuaded by her friend to visit the sanctum of a saint & offer her entreaties. The catch is that her firstborn would have a small head & the shrine keepers have a claim over it. Story aside, the "Rats" of Shah Daulah are very much real & controversial.
9) A story with implications on how Gandhi's tactics were a complete letdown in attaining the sovereignty of India. The character in the story goes as far as to say that stunts of abstinence will bring neither God nor freedom, & I completely agree with him. I could go on & on, but then the review would wander away from the story & erupt into a volcano that will keep spewing lava.
10) A dramatic transition from all the earlier stories. In this, a casanova character reminisces about the moments when he slept with a fetid factory worker, after making love to his wife.
October 16, 2020
How can you go wrong with Manto? What a beautiful and a troubled writer he was, trying to find his way back to the place of his origin and existence.
Try as I did, I wasn't able to separate Pakistan from India and India from Pakistan. Again and again troubling questions rang in my mind: Will Pakistans literature be separate from that of Indias? If so, how? Who owns all that was written in undivided India? Will that be partitioned too? Are India's and Pakistans core problems not the same? Will Urdu be totally wiped out in India? What shape will it take here in Pakistan? Will our state be a religious one? We one? We'll defend the state at all cost, but does that mean we won't have permission to criticize its government an independent country, will our condition be difteren from what it was under the British?
The above is a translated quote from Manto, translated by the renowned author Aatish Taseer. This quote is a part of the Introduction, where Taseer talks about Manto, Manto's history and life and the author's own journey when he had taken the initiative to learn Urdu in order to translate his grandfather's poems.
Manto's short stories always explore topics thay are thought-provoking or taboo - from the essence of the freedom struggle to partition, from sexual desires to prostitution - the controversy is endless. He was himself tried multiple times in Pakistani courts for 'indecency'.
But who cannot love Manto after reading his work? The short stories etch in your brain, they roll in your cerebrum, making you think about life and the struggles one faces while moving through the face of the world. I loved all the short stories although my favorite was For Freedom and Ram Khilavan.
Before I end this review, adding one more quote from the short story For Freedom -
But blood had become cheap, and spilling it hardly produced the same effect any more. I remember that seven or eight months after the massacre in Jallianwala Bagh, my third or fourth grade teacher had brought the entire class here. The garden then was not a garden at all; it ws a dry, desolate, uneven piece of land where, at every ste one's foot knocked against the lumpy earth. I remember our teacher finding a piece of mud, stained perhaps paan spittle. 'Look, he said, holding it up before the it's still stained with the blood of our martyrs.'
Try as I did, I wasn't able to separate Pakistan from India and India from Pakistan. Again and again troubling questions rang in my mind: Will Pakistans literature be separate from that of Indias? If so, how? Who owns all that was written in undivided India? Will that be partitioned too? Are India's and Pakistans core problems not the same? Will Urdu be totally wiped out in India? What shape will it take here in Pakistan? Will our state be a religious one? We one? We'll defend the state at all cost, but does that mean we won't have permission to criticize its government an independent country, will our condition be difteren from what it was under the British?
The above is a translated quote from Manto, translated by the renowned author Aatish Taseer. This quote is a part of the Introduction, where Taseer talks about Manto, Manto's history and life and the author's own journey when he had taken the initiative to learn Urdu in order to translate his grandfather's poems.
Manto's short stories always explore topics thay are thought-provoking or taboo - from the essence of the freedom struggle to partition, from sexual desires to prostitution - the controversy is endless. He was himself tried multiple times in Pakistani courts for 'indecency'.
But who cannot love Manto after reading his work? The short stories etch in your brain, they roll in your cerebrum, making you think about life and the struggles one faces while moving through the face of the world. I loved all the short stories although my favorite was For Freedom and Ram Khilavan.
Before I end this review, adding one more quote from the short story For Freedom -
But blood had become cheap, and spilling it hardly produced the same effect any more. I remember that seven or eight months after the massacre in Jallianwala Bagh, my third or fourth grade teacher had brought the entire class here. The garden then was not a garden at all; it ws a dry, desolate, uneven piece of land where, at every ste one's foot knocked against the lumpy earth. I remember our teacher finding a piece of mud, stained perhaps paan spittle. 'Look, he said, holding it up before the it's still stained with the blood of our martyrs.'
August 9, 2021
Review soon, but I must say, Manto and Aatish Taseer, both have intrigued me to no end now. I can't wait to read more from both!
January 9, 2022
I really appreciate the fact that Manto was The Edgy Dude ™ at a time when Edginess™ wasn't accepted, and that he wrote about very important themes of violence, sexuality, and masculinity. But God help me I cannot handle his personality that SO SURELY creeps out of his writing. I'd thought my only issue would be the clunky English translation, but guess that's not the only issue here.
June 3, 2016
For those who don't know, Saadat Hasan "Manto", who wrote originally in Urdu, is considered as the greatest short story writer of the Indian subcontinent and he retains this position today even after 100 years of his birth.
The translation for this group of stories is done by the contemporary author Aatish Taseer who starts with a detailed introduction explaining what led him to start this work of translation.
The book has some famous stories (such as 'Toba Tek Singh') while others are less known (such as 'For Freedom's that I liked the most).
Most of the stories are set at Bombay (where Saadat lived before leaving for Pakistan) and describes the era of Independence struggle, Hindu Muslim riots and spread of communalism, Partition and its aftermath and India-Pakistan War.
Though as it is true for every translated work, you can easily make out that the essence has been lost but Taseer has done a phenomenal job in some stories like For Freedom and My Name is Radha.
Manto was a bold and upfront writer and never shied away from portraying sex, passion and infidelity with a slight touch of eroticism and no wonder he was tried for 5 times for obscenity in his works.
The stories are short (10-30 pages) and will give you a fair amount of insight about the daily life and struggle of our countrymen during one of the most phenomenal yet tragic time in the Indian History.
Highly recommended.
The translation for this group of stories is done by the contemporary author Aatish Taseer who starts with a detailed introduction explaining what led him to start this work of translation.
The book has some famous stories (such as 'Toba Tek Singh') while others are less known (such as 'For Freedom's that I liked the most).
Most of the stories are set at Bombay (where Saadat lived before leaving for Pakistan) and describes the era of Independence struggle, Hindu Muslim riots and spread of communalism, Partition and its aftermath and India-Pakistan War.
Though as it is true for every translated work, you can easily make out that the essence has been lost but Taseer has done a phenomenal job in some stories like For Freedom and My Name is Radha.
Manto was a bold and upfront writer and never shied away from portraying sex, passion and infidelity with a slight touch of eroticism and no wonder he was tried for 5 times for obscenity in his works.
The stories are short (10-30 pages) and will give you a fair amount of insight about the daily life and struggle of our countrymen during one of the most phenomenal yet tragic time in the Indian History.
Highly recommended.
September 1, 2014
What a writer! The introduction by Aatish Taseer serves to enhance the effect of these short stories, so many of which knock the wind out of you much as a blow to the solar plexus would.
With a great focus on brevity and economy of words, Manto manages to paint vivid pictures and give you a bit of a shock as each story ends. There's an atmosphere of hope, despair, sadness, and even horror (not of the supernatural variety, but daily, everyday horror). There's wit, there's humour (often dark) and a dull cynicism in the entire setup that Manto manages to create.
Aatish Taseer does a great job of translating from Urdu, though I dare say that the original stories in Urdu must be even more powerful. I so wish I'd learnt that language!
It would be totally worth hearing a comparison of the Urdu originals with Mr. Taseer's translation, just to see how much more powerful the originals are. I have no complaints at all about the ten stories, except that at some places it seems that the translator has tried a little too hard to preserve the original turns of phrases, leading to a bit of awkward sentence construction. (I could be wrong about this though.)
The other minor complaint is that what I know as Manto's most famous story - Toba Tek Singh, doesn't feature in this book.
However, if you're even remotely interested in the short story genre, don't give this a miss.
With a great focus on brevity and economy of words, Manto manages to paint vivid pictures and give you a bit of a shock as each story ends. There's an atmosphere of hope, despair, sadness, and even horror (not of the supernatural variety, but daily, everyday horror). There's wit, there's humour (often dark) and a dull cynicism in the entire setup that Manto manages to create.
Aatish Taseer does a great job of translating from Urdu, though I dare say that the original stories in Urdu must be even more powerful. I so wish I'd learnt that language!
It would be totally worth hearing a comparison of the Urdu originals with Mr. Taseer's translation, just to see how much more powerful the originals are. I have no complaints at all about the ten stories, except that at some places it seems that the translator has tried a little too hard to preserve the original turns of phrases, leading to a bit of awkward sentence construction. (I could be wrong about this though.)
The other minor complaint is that what I know as Manto's most famous story - Toba Tek Singh, doesn't feature in this book.
However, if you're even remotely interested in the short story genre, don't give this a miss.
May 24, 2018
I came across this baby when I was looking for books on History of Mumbai. This book can only very loosely be tied to Mumbai's History although it has rich mentions of the city across few stories. It won't be long before you learn why Manto loved Mumbai the way he did.
The stories are simple, captivating, one that leave you pondering over the tales for long after you've finished them. This was my first and surely not the last. Now I am in search of a yet bigger collection of his stories.
I haven't read the Urdu stories but I read in one of the reviews that this translation is as good and as close as it could get to the actual book. So, maybe this is the book you can look for if you wish to read it.
The stories are simple, captivating, one that leave you pondering over the tales for long after you've finished them. This was my first and surely not the last. Now I am in search of a yet bigger collection of his stories.
I haven't read the Urdu stories but I read in one of the reviews that this translation is as good and as close as it could get to the actual book. So, maybe this is the book you can look for if you wish to read it.
December 13, 2019
Manto: Selected Short Stories – A gaunt, no frills, powerful narrative about the sufferings caused by vagaries of fate and society
Sadat Hasan Manto was a renowned writer, playwright and author born in the Indian subcontinent. He primarily wrote in Urdu. ‘Manto: Selected Short Stories’ are a translation of his 12 short stories by Aatish Taseer.
My favourite stories from this book are 'Toba Tek Singh' and 'The Dog of Tithwal'
📝Full review up on blog HTTPS://bongbooksandcoffee.com
Sadat Hasan Manto was a renowned writer, playwright and author born in the Indian subcontinent. He primarily wrote in Urdu. ‘Manto: Selected Short Stories’ are a translation of his 12 short stories by Aatish Taseer.
My favourite stories from this book are 'Toba Tek Singh' and 'The Dog of Tithwal'
📝Full review up on blog HTTPS://bongbooksandcoffee.com
February 17, 2018
Beautifully translated, these stories set around the dates of partition awakened many thoughts.
how would you feel if some day, someone comes to you and say that you are no more in your country, though you didn't move an inch from where you are ?
how would you feel if some day, someone comes to you and say that you are no more in your country, though you didn't move an inch from where you are ?
March 23, 2017
Beautiful. Haunting. Thought-provoking.
August 22, 2022
#bookreview| Manto: Selected Stories | 4.25☆
Last Monday, India celebrated its 75th Independence Day. The independence that came with a cost. The partition culminates in separating the Indian Subcontinent into two self-governing independent dominions- India and Pakistan. It is a period of horror that has been forgotten by many. We have just not forgotten how many people died or how many families have suffered owing to some mindless hate and violence. We have also forgotten writers like Saadat Hasan Manto. One of the rarest gems India (British India) has ever produced.
His writings have a fluidity that genuinely resonates with the essence of Indian culture and its people in the mid-90s. If you have not witnessed 90s Bombay through the lens of Manto 90s Bombay through the lens of Manto, then you're missing out on something impeccable.
"Bombay and Manto" is an emotion.
In his short life of 45years, he has written several short stories, some essays, and radio dramas. His writing comprised sex and desire, adolescence, alcoholics, and prostitutes. He was a distressingly prophetic and daring writer, and a lot of controversies were created in and around his writings. He was charged with obscenity six times. But his stories of partition have made him famous - the greatest chronicler of one of the darkest episodes of Indian history. I think only he can write something like 'Khol do' (open it).
"Whether he was writing about prostitutes, pimps, or criminals, Manto wanted to impress upon his readers that these disreputable people were also human, much more than those who cloaked their failings in a thick veil of hypocrisy." - "The Pity of Partition," Ayesha Jalal.
Manto's stories were radical in their own time and are still revolutionary. He doesn't shy away from the idea that women have sexual needs and their own sexual vision that has nothing to do with being in love with someone else. While reading Manto, you will realise that literature didn't always have to conform. It doesn't always have to tell polite stories.
I'm heartbroken seeing that we have erased such a great icon from the literary canon. This is the first time I have read Manto, but it won't be my last.
--
"If you cannot bear these stories then the society is unbearable. Who am I to remove the clothes of this society, which itself is naked. I don't even try to cover it, because it is not my job, that's the job of dressmakers."
― Saadat Hasan Manto.
Last Monday, India celebrated its 75th Independence Day. The independence that came with a cost. The partition culminates in separating the Indian Subcontinent into two self-governing independent dominions- India and Pakistan. It is a period of horror that has been forgotten by many. We have just not forgotten how many people died or how many families have suffered owing to some mindless hate and violence. We have also forgotten writers like Saadat Hasan Manto. One of the rarest gems India (British India) has ever produced.
His writings have a fluidity that genuinely resonates with the essence of Indian culture and its people in the mid-90s. If you have not witnessed 90s Bombay through the lens of Manto 90s Bombay through the lens of Manto, then you're missing out on something impeccable.
"Bombay and Manto" is an emotion.
In his short life of 45years, he has written several short stories, some essays, and radio dramas. His writing comprised sex and desire, adolescence, alcoholics, and prostitutes. He was a distressingly prophetic and daring writer, and a lot of controversies were created in and around his writings. He was charged with obscenity six times. But his stories of partition have made him famous - the greatest chronicler of one of the darkest episodes of Indian history. I think only he can write something like 'Khol do' (open it).
"Whether he was writing about prostitutes, pimps, or criminals, Manto wanted to impress upon his readers that these disreputable people were also human, much more than those who cloaked their failings in a thick veil of hypocrisy." - "The Pity of Partition," Ayesha Jalal.
Manto's stories were radical in their own time and are still revolutionary. He doesn't shy away from the idea that women have sexual needs and their own sexual vision that has nothing to do with being in love with someone else. While reading Manto, you will realise that literature didn't always have to conform. It doesn't always have to tell polite stories.
I'm heartbroken seeing that we have erased such a great icon from the literary canon. This is the first time I have read Manto, but it won't be my last.
--
"If you cannot bear these stories then the society is unbearable. Who am I to remove the clothes of this society, which itself is naked. I don't even try to cover it, because it is not my job, that's the job of dressmakers."
― Saadat Hasan Manto.
April 26, 2021
" The world has many colors, Dhobi. Sun in places; Shades in others. Five Fingers are not alike."
I've picked it up seeing some recommendation videos on best short stories from Indian Subcontinent and I must accept that they are a masterpiece. I loved the collection of short stories and the diversity of setting in each, the rustic and realistic character depiction ( including his clever sexual innuendos) and trying his best at contrasting characters in limited words. The best part is, he knows where to start and where precisely to end a story and that is certainly worth all the praise!
Recommended for those looking for a real fast-breeze read and eclectic collection of short stories from Partition era India.
I've picked it up seeing some recommendation videos on best short stories from Indian Subcontinent and I must accept that they are a masterpiece. I loved the collection of short stories and the diversity of setting in each, the rustic and realistic character depiction ( including his clever sexual innuendos) and trying his best at contrasting characters in limited words. The best part is, he knows where to start and where precisely to end a story and that is certainly worth all the praise!
Recommended for those looking for a real fast-breeze read and eclectic collection of short stories from Partition era India.
August 22, 2022
১৯৪৭ সালে ভারত উপমহাদেশের ঐতিহাসিক দেশ বিভাগের সময় বিভিন্ন অঞ্চলে ও দেশে ঘুরে ও অবস্থান করে মূলধারার রাজনিতী, ব্যক্তিক ও সামষ্টিক মানুষ���র অনেক গল্প রচনা করেন মান্টো ।
চূড়ান্ত বাস্তবতা ছাড়াও কালো কৌতুকময়, রম্যগল্প, মেলোড্রামা, পটপরিবর্তনসহ বিচিত্র চিত্র ও ঘটনার সন্মূখীন হয়ে মানুষকে অন্য এক দিক উন্মোচনের নিশানা দেন সাদাত হাসান মান্টো । যুদ্ধ, বিভাজন, ভাঙ্গা-গড়ার পৃথিবীতে জীবনকে লেখার মধ্য দিয়ে দেখে ও রেখে যাবার পন্থা অবলম্বন করে গেছেন সারা জীবন । মান্টো জীবদ্দশায় ভারতে তিনবার ও পাকিস্তানে তিনবার গল্প লেখার জন্য অশ্লীলতার অভিযোগে আটক হন । আদালতে দাঁড়িয়ে বলেন- 'আপনি যদি আমার গল্পকে নোংরা বলেন তবে আপনি যে সমাজে বাস করেন সেটাই নোংরা । গল্পে আমি কেবল সত্য উৎঘাটন করি ।' অনেক বিজ্ঞজনেরা তাকে লরেন্স, মোঁফাসা বা বালঝাঁকের সাথে তুলনা করলেও মান্টো ঘটনা ও ইতিহাসের মধ্য দিয়ে গিয়ে মানুষের মূল্যবোধের যে সম্প্রসারণ করেন তাতে তাকে তার অবস্থান দিতে হয় । ১১ই মে ১৯১২ সালে ভারতের অমৃতসরে জন্ম এক কাশ্মীরি পরিবারে । আলিগড় মুসলিম ইউনিভার্সিটিতে পড়ার পর কর্মজীবনে রেডিওতে নাটক লেখা, ফিল্মের জন্য বিবিধ লেখা ও গল্প লেখার কাজ করেন । ১৯৪৮ সালে সপরিবারে পাকিস্তানে পত্তনের পর সাত বছরের মাথায় মাত্র তেতাল্লিশ বছর বয়সে মারা যান ।
১৯৪৭ এর আগে, বিশেষ করে ১৯২১ থেকে ১৯৪৬ এর মধ্যে তৎকালীন ভারতীয় উপমহাদেশের বিভিন্ন জায়গায় অনেকগুলো সাম্প্রদায়িক দাঙ্গা হয় । তারমধ্যে পাঞ্জাব, কলকাতা ও নোয়াখালী অঞ্চলে কত মানুষ মারা গেছে তার কোন নথীভুক্তি নেই । এই দাঙ্গাগুলা হিন্দু-মুসলমানদের মধ্যে কিভাবে হল? এ সময়ে কেন হঠাৎ মানুষের মধ্যে সহাবস্থান করাটা দুরূহ হয়ে উঠল এটা ভাববার বিষয় । সাদাত হাসান মান্টোর বিচিত্র ভ্রাম্যমান জীবনের লেখায় এ উপমহাদেশ অখন্ড থেকে খন্ডিত হওয়ার সময়কে প্রত্যক্ষ করেন । তার গল্পে বিচিত্র প্রেক্ষাপট ও চরিত্রের ভেতরে স্থানিক পরিক্রমা ও ব্যক্তির মধ্য দিয়ে গোষ্ঠি, দল ছাড়াও ইন্ডিভিজুয়ালের প্রতিনিধিত্বের বার্তাকে বহন করার মত কাজ করেন । আমরা সে গল্পগুলো পড়ে পরিস্থিতি ও প্রেক্ষাপট সম্পর্কে আরো কিছু ধারণা পেতে পারি ।
ব্রিটিশরা যেভাবে শাসন এবং ব্যবসা করত সেটা এ অঞ্চলের মানুষেরা বুঝতে পেরেছিল দীর্ঘদিন ধরেই । শস্য উৎপাদন না করে নীল বা চা উৎপাদন করতে বাধ্য হওয়া বঞ্চিত মানুষ এবং ক্রমবর্ধমান শিক্ষিত মানুষেরাই সে প্রেক্ষিতে বৃটিশ শাসনের বিরোধিতা চাইতো প্রথমত । নীল বিদ্রোহ, বঙ্গভঙ্গ আন্দোলন, স্বদেশী আন্দোলনসহ বিভিন্ন গেরিলা আক্রমণ ছাড়াও দুনিয়াতে উপনিবেশিক সাম্রাজ্যবাদের রদবদল হয়ে পুঁজিবাদী সাম্রাজ্যের গোড়াপত্তনের সময় নানা মুখী চাপে দুই’শ বছর শাসন করার পর বৃটিশরা চলে যাবার সময় এলো । শুধু তারা চলে যায়নি, হিন্দু-মুসলিম দুই পক্ষের কিছু শাসক ও মধ্যবিত্ত গোষ্টির সমর্থনে মানচিত্র কেটে দেশ বিভাগ পোক্ত করে যায় । হিন্দু-মুসলমানদের অসামঞ্জস্যপূর্ণ প্রগতি ও মধ্যবিত্তের চাকুরি প্রাপ্তির অভাবে অনেকেই বলেন মুসলমানরা প্রথম দেশ বিভাগ চায় । আরেক শ্রেনীর চিন্তকদের মতে বিলেত ফেরত কিছু ভদ্রলোক বিভিন্ন দাঙ্গার ফলে নিজেদের আলাদা ভালো থাকার জন্য সর্বপ্রথম দেশ বিভাগের প্রস্তাব করেন । কিন্তু অধিকাংশ গনমানুষ জানতো না বা দেশ বিভাগের পক্ষে বা বিপক্ষে তাদের কোন মতামতই তৈরি হয়নি কখনো । দেশ বিভাগ হওয়ার সাথে কিছু অঞ্চল নিয়ে সমস্যা সৃষ্টি হয় । তারমধ্যে একটা হল বর্তমান বাংলাদেশ, তৎকালীন পূর্ব পাকিস্তান ও পূর্ববঙ্গ । কারণ এ অঞ্চল সংখ্যা গরিষ্ঠ মুসলিমের জন্য পাকিস্তানে পড়েছে কিন্তু ভৌগলিক অবস্থান শাসনের অনুকূলে নয় । এবং কাশ্মীর, যার মধ্য দিয়ে অমীমাংসিত এক কাঁটাতার গড়ে তোলা হয়েছে ।
মেদহীন, স্পষ্ট, ছুরির মত, চৌকস ইত্যাদি বহু তকমা চাইলে সাদাত হাসান মান্টোকে দেয়া যায় । কিন্তু গল্প ও গল্পের উপজীব্যটা সর্বপ্রথম মূলত জরুরী । মানুষের হৃদয় নিংড়ানো বেদনা ও সুখ অনুভব করার, বাঁচার ও বাঁচানোর তাগিদ আজো মানুষ অন্য মানুষের কাছেই খুঁজে । আর তাই গল্পরা কখনো হয়ে ওঠে সত্যদ্রষ্টা কখনো বা সুদূর । সাদাত হাসান মান্টো শব্দ দিয়ে বুঝিয়ে, কখনো বিদ্রুপ করে, কখনো বা চোখে আঙ্গুল দিয়ে বা বুড়ো আঙ্গুল দেখিয়ে, যেভাবে পেরেছেন গল্পটা বলে গেছেন । দেশ ভাগ হলে ভারতে যে মুসলমানরা থাকবে তারা হবে সংখ্যালঘু মুসলিম এবং পাকিস্তানে থাকবে ইসলাম বা পাকিস্তানে যে অন্য ধর্মের লোক থাকবে তারা হবে সংখ্যালঘু এবং ভারতে থাকবে কেবল হিন্দু । এই বৈষম্য, ইসলাম-মুসলিম বা হিন্দু-সংখ্যালঘু আইডেন্টিটি পৃথক হয়ে যে মানবিক বিপর্যয় হবে, সেটা তখন মান্টোর মত আর কে খেয়াল করে বলেছিল আমার জানা নেই ।
চূড়ান্ত বাস্তবতা ছাড়াও কালো কৌতুকময়, রম্যগল্প, মেলোড্রামা, পটপরিবর্তনসহ বিচিত্র চিত্র ও ঘটনার সন্মূখীন হয়ে মানুষকে অন্য এক দিক উন্মোচনের নিশানা দেন সাদাত হাসান মান্টো । যুদ্ধ, বিভাজন, ভাঙ্গা-গড়ার পৃথিবীতে জীবনকে লেখার মধ্য দিয়ে দেখে ও রেখে যাবার পন্থা অবলম্বন করে গেছেন সারা জীবন । মান্টো জীবদ্দশায় ভারতে তিনবার ও পাকিস্তানে তিনবার গল্প লেখার জন্য অশ্লীলতার অভিযোগে আটক হন । আদালতে দাঁড়িয়ে বলেন- 'আপনি যদি আমার গল্পকে নোংরা বলেন তবে আপনি যে সমাজে বাস করেন সেটাই নোংরা । গল্পে আমি কেবল সত্য উৎঘাটন করি ।' অনেক বিজ্ঞজনেরা তাকে লরেন্স, মোঁফাসা বা বালঝাঁকের সাথে তুলনা করলেও মান্টো ঘটনা ও ইতিহাসের মধ্য দিয়ে গিয়ে মানুষের মূল্যবোধের যে সম্প্রসারণ করেন তাতে তাকে তার অবস্থান দিতে হয় । ১১ই মে ১৯১২ সালে ভারতের অমৃতসরে জন্ম এক কাশ্মীরি পরিবারে । আলিগড় মুসলিম ইউনিভার্সিটিতে পড়ার পর কর্মজীবনে রেডিওতে নাটক লেখা, ফিল্মের জন্য বিবিধ লেখা ও গল্প লেখার কাজ করেন । ১৯৪৮ সালে সপরিবারে পাকিস্তানে পত্তনের পর সাত বছরের মাথায় মাত্র তেতাল্লিশ বছর বয়সে মারা যান ।
১৯৪৭ এর আগে, বিশেষ করে ১৯২১ থেকে ১৯৪৬ এর মধ্যে তৎকালীন ভারতীয় উপমহাদেশের বিভিন্ন জায়গায় অনেকগুলো সাম্প্রদায়িক দাঙ্গা হয় । তারমধ্যে পাঞ্জাব, কলকাতা ও নোয়াখালী অঞ্চলে কত মানুষ মারা গেছে তার কোন নথীভুক্তি নেই । এই দাঙ্গাগুলা হিন্দু-মুসলমানদের মধ্যে কিভাবে হল? এ সময়ে কেন হঠাৎ মানুষের মধ্যে সহাবস্থান করাটা দুরূহ হয়ে উঠল এটা ভাববার বিষয় । সাদাত হাসান মান্টোর বিচিত্র ভ্রাম্যমান জীবনের লেখায় এ উপমহাদেশ অখন্ড থেকে খন্ডিত হওয়ার সময়কে প্রত্যক্ষ করেন । তার গল্পে বিচিত্র প্রেক্ষাপট ও চরিত্রের ভেতরে স্থানিক পরিক্রমা ও ব্যক্তির মধ্য দিয়ে গোষ্ঠি, দল ছাড়াও ইন্ডিভিজুয়ালের প্রতিনিধিত্বের বার্তাকে বহন করার মত কাজ করেন । আমরা সে গল্পগুলো পড়ে পরিস্থিতি ও প্রেক্ষাপট সম্পর্কে আরো কিছু ধারণা পেতে পারি ।
ব্রিটিশরা যেভাবে শাসন এবং ব্যবসা করত সেটা এ অঞ্চলের মানুষেরা বুঝতে পেরেছিল দীর্ঘদিন ধরেই । শস্য উৎপাদন না করে নীল বা চা উৎপাদন করতে বাধ্য হওয়া বঞ্চিত মানুষ এবং ক্রমবর্ধমান শিক্ষিত মানুষেরাই সে প্রেক্ষিতে বৃটিশ শাসনের বিরোধিতা চাইতো প্রথমত । নীল বিদ্রোহ, বঙ্গভঙ্গ আন্দোলন, স্বদেশী আন্দোলনসহ বিভিন্ন গেরিলা আক্রমণ ছাড়াও দুনিয়াতে উপনিবেশিক সাম্রাজ্যবাদের রদবদল হয়ে পুঁজিবাদী সাম্রাজ্যের গোড়াপত্তনের সময় নানা মুখী চাপে দুই’শ বছর শাসন করার পর বৃটিশরা চলে যাবার সময় এলো । শুধু তারা চলে যায়নি, হিন্দু-মুসলিম দুই পক্ষের কিছু শাসক ও মধ্যবিত্ত গোষ্টির সমর্থনে মানচিত্র কেটে দেশ বিভাগ পোক্ত করে যায় । হিন্দু-মুসলমানদের অসামঞ্জস্যপূর্ণ প্রগতি ও মধ্যবিত্তের চাকুরি প্রাপ্তির অভাবে অনেকেই বলেন মুসলমানরা প্রথম দেশ বিভাগ চায় । আরেক শ্রেনীর চিন্তকদের মতে বিলেত ফেরত কিছু ভদ্রলোক বিভিন্ন দাঙ্গার ফলে নিজেদের আলাদা ভালো থাকার জন্য সর্বপ্রথম দেশ বিভাগের প্রস্তাব করেন । কিন্তু অধিকাংশ গনমানুষ জানতো না বা দেশ বিভাগের পক্ষে বা বিপক্ষে তাদের কোন মতামতই তৈরি হয়নি কখনো । দেশ বিভাগ হওয়ার সাথে কিছু অঞ্চল নিয়ে সমস্যা সৃষ্টি হয় । তারমধ্যে একটা হল বর্তমান বাংলাদেশ, তৎকালীন পূর্ব পাকিস্তান ও পূর্ববঙ্গ । কারণ এ অঞ্চল সংখ্যা গরিষ্ঠ মুসলিমের জন্য পাকিস্তানে পড়েছে কিন্তু ভৌগলিক অবস্থান শাসনের অনুকূলে নয় । এবং কাশ্মীর, যার মধ্য দিয়ে অমীমাংসিত এক কাঁটাতার গড়ে তোলা হয়েছে ।
মেদহীন, স্পষ্ট, ছুরির মত, চৌকস ইত্যাদি বহু তকমা চাইলে সাদাত হাসান মান্টোকে দেয়া যায় । কিন্তু গল্প ও গল্পের উপজীব্যটা সর্বপ্রথম মূলত জরুরী । মানুষের হৃদয় নিংড়ানো বেদনা ও সুখ অনুভব করার, বাঁচার ও বাঁচানোর তাগিদ আজো মানুষ অন্য মানুষের কাছেই খুঁজে । আর তাই গল্পরা কখনো হয়ে ওঠে সত্যদ্রষ্টা কখনো বা সুদূর । সাদাত হাসান মান্টো শব্দ দিয়ে বুঝিয়ে, কখনো বিদ্রুপ করে, কখনো বা চোখে আঙ্গুল দিয়ে বা বুড়ো আঙ্গুল দেখিয়ে, যেভাবে পেরেছেন গল্পটা বলে গেছেন । দেশ ভাগ হলে ভারতে যে মুসলমানরা থাকবে তারা হবে সংখ্যালঘু মুসলিম এবং পাকিস্তানে থাকবে ইসলাম বা পাকিস্তানে যে অন্য ধর্মের লোক থাকবে তারা হবে সংখ্যালঘু এবং ভারতে থাকবে কেবল হিন্দু । এই বৈষম্য, ইসলাম-মুসলিম বা হিন্দু-সংখ্যালঘু আইডেন্টিটি পৃথক হয়ে যে মানবিক বিপর্যয় হবে, সেটা তখন মান্টোর মত আর কে খেয়াল করে বলেছিল আমার জানা নেই ।
October 28, 2014
Manto Phir Se
As a reader I give myself the right to judge who is the best and who does justice to his job. But in this case I refuse to do so, its Manto after all. I would respect and adore anyone who becomes a medium for me to reach Manto, to read his works. I don’t understand Urdu, so without these translators Manto would have been just a name to me. Also how can I say which translator is best, its Manto I associate these stories with. None of these translators can ever take the credit or importance from Manto. Each and every story of Manto is a living testimony to his greatness, no translator can take away the author’s glory, instead they only add to it.
line form the book
“For the short story, while admitted to be extremely difficult to manage successfully, has long been regarded as somehow second rate, not least because it is generally felt to suffer from Cleverness. Perhaps it requires too much control, so that the reader feels manipulated, and because many short stories depend so much on irony or sudden reversals, they may seem over contrived – like a joke which, once told, loses its tension.”
To read more click here.. http://storywala.blogspot.in/2012/10/...
As a reader I give myself the right to judge who is the best and who does justice to his job. But in this case I refuse to do so, its Manto after all. I would respect and adore anyone who becomes a medium for me to reach Manto, to read his works. I don’t understand Urdu, so without these translators Manto would have been just a name to me. Also how can I say which translator is best, its Manto I associate these stories with. None of these translators can ever take the credit or importance from Manto. Each and every story of Manto is a living testimony to his greatness, no translator can take away the author’s glory, instead they only add to it.
line form the book
“For the short story, while admitted to be extremely difficult to manage successfully, has long been regarded as somehow second rate, not least because it is generally felt to suffer from Cleverness. Perhaps it requires too much control, so that the reader feels manipulated, and because many short stories depend so much on irony or sudden reversals, they may seem over contrived – like a joke which, once told, loses its tension.”
To read more click here.. http://storywala.blogspot.in/2012/10/...
February 17, 2018
You would understand "Smells beautiful" right? It doesn't make sense but you do understand. That is Saadat Hasan Manto. Reading these stories let you have a rich experience of the world drawn-up and there's a recurring thought on how beautiful it would be to read his work in Urdu or even Hindi.
I think writing short-stories is a lot difficult than writing a novel. After going through a couple of them we'd be able to pick a pattern, especially the endings. Manto succeeds in making us not think about the ending but leave the reader wanting more.
This book is an easy and short read. Has an intro on what, why and how of bringing this to market. The beauty of the original does not fully translate into English, despite the sincerity of the translator, Manto's grandson, Taseer.
The writing and ideas are exceptionally educational and modern, even though the stories are set in pre Indian independence times. His writings are very much relevant in today's public moral policing Indian society. It is direct and is rarely sentimental.
I'll look for a Hindi translation of another collection of Manto's works.
I think writing short-stories is a lot difficult than writing a novel. After going through a couple of them we'd be able to pick a pattern, especially the endings. Manto succeeds in making us not think about the ending but leave the reader wanting more.
This book is an easy and short read. Has an intro on what, why and how of bringing this to market. The beauty of the original does not fully translate into English, despite the sincerity of the translator, Manto's grandson, Taseer.
The writing and ideas are exceptionally educational and modern, even though the stories are set in pre Indian independence times. His writings are very much relevant in today's public moral policing Indian society. It is direct and is rarely sentimental.
I'll look for a Hindi translation of another collection of Manto's works.
December 27, 2018
Manto, born in India 1912, spent most of his life in Delhi and Mumbai, before migrating to Pakistan in 1948. He wrote short stories, plays, radio shows and Bollywood movie scripts. His works were a catharsis of the whirlwind of emotions he went through in pre and post partition days. He wrote with fearless candour, such that he was tried 6 times for obscenity.
Before I started reading this, my limited knowledge suggested he only wrote about partition and prostitution, but no that’s not all. His stories are about gender equality, relationships, desire, killing, slaughter, rape, satire, grief, hypocrisy and moral decay.
His stories bare the nakedness of human nature, address vices of the society. But what’s surprising is that these aren’t stories of the past (cos they were written in 1940s or 60s), but they are very relevant even today, in our ’modern’ world still ridden with biases, chaos and superficiality.
Rightly said, ‘Manto Zinda Hai’
Before I started reading this, my limited knowledge suggested he only wrote about partition and prostitution, but no that’s not all. His stories are about gender equality, relationships, desire, killing, slaughter, rape, satire, grief, hypocrisy and moral decay.
His stories bare the nakedness of human nature, address vices of the society. But what’s surprising is that these aren’t stories of the past (cos they were written in 1940s or 60s), but they are very relevant even today, in our ’modern’ world still ridden with biases, chaos and superficiality.
Rightly said, ‘Manto Zinda Hai’
July 24, 2016
I didn't know what to think of Saadat Hasan Manto. I heard good things, but I didn't realize he would be that good.
When Salman Rushie (and many others) said that he is one of the best short story authors of the sub-continent, they were not wrong.
The stories made me cringe, made me sad, made me wallow. There were stories of dogs, of the partition, of human emotion that just rang true in so many different ways.
Everyone should read at least some of his short stories - it was truly a delectable treat for my brain.
When Salman Rushie (and many others) said that he is one of the best short story authors of the sub-continent, they were not wrong.
The stories made me cringe, made me sad, made me wallow. There were stories of dogs, of the partition, of human emotion that just rang true in so many different ways.
Everyone should read at least some of his short stories - it was truly a delectable treat for my brain.
December 4, 2013
Can't get enough of Manto's writing. Riveting, enthralling...many of his pieces leave you feeling almost exploited, but there is no way one can stop reading. Truly a legend, he deserves more credit for his progressive and honest writing.
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