Manto's Musings

Manto’s Musings

I had heard of Manto in the passing as being the author of Toba Tek Singh, one of his most acclaimed plays /writings. But, had never bothered to read him, as one is always arrogant in youth, ignoring and reading the Western authors. However, a month back reading about him and the fact that he was not going to be taught anymore, made me conspicuous about my ignorance. Sadat Hasan manto is one of the most controversial, misunderstood authors. It is virtually impossible to get his work in the stores except for some weak translations that do not do justice to his passionate style of writing.

I tried to get his books, appealing in my social networking mainstay group, where I was met with, what ,whom, and was told to read fiction and to get a life. The other option was to reach out simultaneously to my Facebook friends, and well answers came.

I cannot thank one of them enough who found the books and sent a courier. Needless to say, I realized I was ignorant and lacking in any knowledge. His books take you to the times of the partition and the chilling encounters of the time of 1947 when humans were killed just because they followed a religion. Discrimination was only on the basis of Sikhs, Muslims. The carnage that followed is one of the worst in mankind second to the Jews.  You and I cannot even begin to pen down what happened or put a price. His style of writing, the empathy and the fact that he highlights goodness of human being in the eye of the worst human suffering makes us believe in the goodness of humanity. However, in the same compassionate way he shocks one to the core with his naked and chilling rendition of a father who is sexually molesting his own daughter who had escaped his clutches to be on the other side. Its like the savior was the enemy while the real enemy lived within. This story was so powerfully written and the imagery so effective that it made me cry and stop reading for a few days. And, that has never happened. Reading for me is akin to breathing. His impact was so huge that whenever I would try and discuss the story I would cry .

Manto, in his original style strips man to his basic primeval self where lies an evil, feral animal who lets his basic, baser instincts over take him. And, then he surprises one  with a classic love story.

Oh, Manto how misunderstood you are! And, that too in the state where you were born ,he who protested against laws, bans  has been banned because he is obscene . More is shown in the advertising industry and we go through enough horrors everyday that are not banned by the moral policing but he is .  I wish he was read openly so that todays generations would know his style and how much we can learn from the pain and horrors of the partition where a land was butchered and blood ran free just because one did not confirm to the religion of the other. Ironical, that the masters started the religions to end the differences.

Every story is like unraveling him and the more I read, the more I feel that one should learn Urdu.

Its rightly said life is a learning curve and a process that goes on every day.