Title :
Manto
Author :
Sadan Hasan Manto (Translated by Aatish Taseer)
Publisher
: Random House India
ISBN :
978-8-184-00144-0
The
author Sadan Hasan Manto born in undivided India donned many hats ranging from
being a radio and film scriptwriter, journalist to a short-story writer. Though
his short stories created many controversies yet he is acclaimed as one of the
greatest story tellers of his times. In Manto's words, "If you find my
stories dirty, the society you are living in is dirty. With my stories, I only
expose the truth." Originally written in Urdu, his short-stories have been
translated by none other than an accomplished writer himself - Aatish Taseer.
Perhaps this is the reason that while reading this translation I never felt the
missing link which usually the regular translations suffer from. The language
is great and even though I have not read the original Urdu stories, I still
could enjoy the details and nuances as would be done while reading classics of
seasoned authors. So my compliments to Aatish Taseer that he brought the works
of Manto to wider audience.
After
reading these short stories, the most significant thing that could be said
about the writing is that - his stories carry much more beyond the written text
and understanding what is written between the lines make the stories and the
story teller tower higher than the crowd.
Manto's
stories introduce the readers to the realities of life and there are times when
the reality is not very pleasing for the eyes and otherwise. Since his writings
are around the time of partition, they do carry a somber mood and pessimism to
a certain extent. This book brought back the memories of the writings of
Khushwant Singh, Gurcharan Das, Gulzar and likes of them. Manto's writing has
similar sensitivity and emotional aspect to them whether it is about : 'Toba
Tek Singh' - a lunatic caught in no man's land, 'The Last Salute' which depicts
friends turning into foes, child prostitute in 'Ten Rupees', cultural
boundaries in 'The Mice of Shah Daulah' or the plight of a father after seeing
her lost daughter in 'Khol Do'. Every tale stirs many deep seated strings
within the hearts of the readers and I consider that an achievement of the
storyteller.
The
stories are set mostly in North western region of India which bore the brunt of
partition the most. These 11 sensitively written stories explore those aspects
of some lives which usually are left unspoken and un-talked about. In spite of
belonging to conservative era, Manto did not hesitate to write about sensitive
subjects so his writings were much ahead of his time. Usually women centric,
the stories bring out the aspects which go beyond the realm of rationality and
logic. These perceptive short stories would surely keep haunting the readers in
times of non-activity.
.png){kind=icon}
Posts
