Manto

I picked up Saadat Hasan Manto’s translated stories by Aatish Taseer. I first heard about Manto from Vivek who likes reading stories by Ismat Chugtai and Manto.

Back to this book I finished reading day before. It is a collection of ten beautifully translated short stories. At the end of each story a reader might ponder about the characters, and I for sure wondered ‘what if?’ – There should have been more. I am not sure if I was expecting, or wanted, happy endings, but each story seems incomplete to me, or maybe I want to fill more…

Ten rupees: the story is about sarita, a young prostitute, who goes out with three men in a car. They go to a beach where the men have beer and the kid in saritha just enjoys the ride, the company of men, and nothing else. Before they start the car, she is handed a 10 rupee note which is her price, but on getting down she returns the note to the driver while the two other men are dozing off in the back seat. She returned the money because they did not do anything…

Blouse: story of momin and his growing up from a child to an adolescent, and not understanding the transformation within. His master’s daughter stitches a satin blouse for herself and he’s there to help her. He picks up her moist vest and feels different. When no one is around, he feels the softness of the blouse…

Khol do: story of a father whose daughter gets lost during partition. He requests a couple of guys to search her; they do find her alive and perhaps rape her…

Khaled Mian: story of a superstitious man who thinks his son would not live to celebrate his first birthday, and for whatever reasons, his suspicion comes true.

Ram Khilavan: the dhobi who is indebted to a Muslim couple for saving his life. Drinks alcohol and is about to kill the husband but realizes and saves him from the anti-muslim rioters; and later apologizes.

License: Nesti starts driving the tonga/coach after her husband’s death. She was beautiful and received a lot of marriage proposals but she refused. For being women, her license was cancelled. She finally had to sell her body for a living…

The Mice of Shah Daulah: Salima had to handover her first born to the caretakers of Shah Daulah with hose blessings she had the child after 6-7 years of marriage. Thereafter she had two more kids, but she could never forget her first one. She meets him after almost 10 years, but loses him very shortly…

Smell: Randhir who has never had dearth of women flocking his house, sleeps with a Marathi girl who gets drenched in the rain. He inhaled a strange smell which came from her body and remembered it for long after she had gone…