Saadat Hasan Manto

WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY MOHAMMED HANIF In the 1930s and 40s, Bombay was the cosmopolitan capital of the subcontinent - an exhilarating hub of license and liberty, bursting with both creative energy and helpless degradation. It was also muse to the celebrated short story writer of India and Pakistan, Saadat Hasan Manto. His hard-edged, moving stories remain, a hundred years after his birth, startling and provocative. In searching out those forgotten by humanity - prostitutes, conmen and crooks - Manto wrote about what it means to be human. Matt Reeck and Aftab Ahmadâe(tm)s translations reach into the streets and capture Manto's world in contemporary, idiomatic English.

Bombay Stories

Arzu Çiftsüren (transl.)

Saadat Hasan Manto, 1954’te yazdığı “Toba Tek Singh” ile edebiyat çevrelerini kasıp kavurmuştu. En iyi bölünme öyküsü olarak kabul edilen “Toba Tek Singh” bölünmenin anlamsızlığı ve iki sömürgecilik sonrası devletin bir akıl hastanesindeki hastaları dinlerine göre paylaşma politikası üzerine iğneleyici bir yorumdu. Manto’nun mesajı keskin ama netti: Bölünmenin deliliği tüm hastaların deliliğinin toplamından daha büyüktü. -Ayesha Jalal- “Toba Tek Singh” bir başyapıttır. Öyküdeki olaylar bölünme zamanında, Lahor’daki bir akıl hastanesinde geçiyor. Bütün şehirlerin tâbi tutulduğu etnik temizlikten tımarhaneler nasıl kurtulsun ki? Saadat Hasan Manto deliliği gerçek dünyadaki bu hadsiz çılgınlıkla karşılaştırırken tımarhanedeki normalliği keşfetti. “Deliler” nasıl bir suç işlenmiş olduğunu, bölünmeyi kabul etmiş olan politikacılardan daha iyi anlıyorlardı. -Tariq Ali- Saadat Hasan Manto, çağdaş Hindistan kısa öykücülüğünün tartışılmaz ustasıdır. -Salman Rushdie- (Tanıtım Bülteninden)

Toba Tek Singh

"Widely considered a reigning master of the modern short story, Manto vividly conjures life on the streets of Bombay - its prostitutes, pimps, gangsters, artists, writers, and those caught in the fore of the India-Pakistan partition. Deeply opposed to partition, Manto is best known for his portrayals of its violence and absurdities. From an ownerless dog caught in the firing squad at the border of the two countries, to neighbors turned enemy soldiers pausing for tea together in a short cease fire - Manto challenges the edges of geographic, cultural, and social boundaries with an unflinching and satirical gaze, and a powerful humanism. With an introduction by Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Vijay Seshadri, this collection illuminates Manto's most vital and universal work, and - half a century later - remains a prescient text illuminating so many of the glaring and silenced conflicts that plague humanity today"--

Stories

The Dog of Tithwal

A collection of classic, yet shockingly contemporary, short stories set in the vibrant world of mid-century Bombay, from one of India’s greatest writers. Arriving in 1930s Bombay, Saadat Hasan Manto discovered a city like no other. A metropolis for all, and an exhilarating hub of license and liberty, bursting with both creative energy and helpless despondency. A journalist, screenwriter, and editor, Manto is best known as a master of the short story, and Bombay was his lifelong muse. Vividly bringing to life the city’s seedy underbelly—the prostitutes, pimps, and gangsters that filled its streets—as well as the aspiring writers and actors who arrived looking for fame, here are all of Manto’s Bombay-based stories, together in English for the very first time. By turns humorous and fantastical, Manto’s tales are the provocative and unflinching lives of those forgotten by humanity.

Saʻādat Ḥasan Manṭo

Partition Stories By The Subcontinent S Finest Short-Story Writer Mottled Dawn Is A Collection Of Saadat Hasan Manto S Most Powerful Pieces On The Partition Of The Subcontinent Into India And Pakistan In 1947. The Book Includes Unforgettable Stories Like Toba Tek Singh , The Return , The Assignment , Colder Than Ice And Many More, Bringing Alive The Most Tragic Event In The History Of The Indian Subcontinent.

Fifty Sketches and Stories of Partition

Mottled Dawn

A bohemian and an iconoclast, the figure of Saadat Hasan Manto looms large over the literature of the Indian subcontinent. We know of his stories on the horrors of Partition and the struggles of prostitutes. But neither Partition nor prostitution gave birth to the genius of Manto. They only furnished him with an occasion to reveal the truth of the human condition. My Name Is Radha is a path-breaking edition of stories which delves deep into Manto’s creative world, and refreshingly brings into focus Manto the writer rather than Manto the commentator. Muhammad Umar Memon’s inspired selection of Manto’s best-known stories along with those less talked about, and his precise and elegant translation showcase an astonishing writer being true to his calling. ‘The undisputed master of the modern Indian short story’ Salman Rushdie ‘An errant genius’ The Hindu

My Name is Radha

Manto 

Stories set in Bombay and other parts of India deal with prostitutes, pimps, street-traders, gangsters, and those caught up in the Partition of 1947

Kingdom's End and Other Stories

'The undisputed master of the modern Indian short story.'--Salman Rushdie Originally published in 1955 as Shikari Auratein, Women of Prey is a hugely entertaining and forgotten classic containing raunchy, hilarious short stories and profiles that show a completely different side of Manto. As he's enjoying a kulfi in his Victoria coach after a long day at Filmistan, a beautiful burqa-clad woman suddenly hops in next to Manto, ready to go home. What will he do next? When Ashok stumbles across a porn film for the first time in his life, he is appalled. What will happen when his wife gets a hold of the contraband? Will two bitter lovers--about to give it all up--resolve their differences, before they take each other's lives? Can Ashok Kumar, heartthrob to millions of women, handle Paro Devi's affections? In addition to these stories, this volume also includes 'Sitara', Manto's scandalous profile of the legendary Kathak dancer, famous for her troop of lovers. Appearing in English translation for the first time ever, this gem of a collection is a gloriously pulpy, sexual, hilarious and tragic romp through Manto's Bombay, Lahore and Amritsar.

Women of Prey (Shikari Auratein)

"If you killed a bad man, what you would have killed was not his badness, but the man himself." As Mumtaz prepares to leave for Pakistan—a concept that in itself seems strange—Juggal can't shake away the feeling of guilt. His closest friend, his confidante was leaving because of what he said and the strange thing was, Juggal wasn't sure whether his guilt had to do with the fact that Mumtaz was leaving or the fact that he'd meant what he said: "I would kill you." Partition will forever be that one event that created and destroyed so much in its wake for India and Pakistan. Lands, homes, lives, and relationships suffered, turning neighbours into strangers, friends into foes. Even as Mumtaz bids a reluctant farewell to Bombay, he can't stop thinking of Sahae, the pimp with a heart of gold, a man who lived a life of contradictions until his very last breath. Manto's genius lies in telling stories whose characters forever remain a suspect to conventional morality. With Sahae, he also manages to show us how his thinking was way ahead of his times. Powerful and heartwrenching, this is short fiction at its best.

(Penguin Petit)

Sahae

Ever since Sultana had moved to Delhi, business had slowed down. Unlike her time in Ambala, not a single gora had visited her so far. Even Khuda Bakhsh, her lucky charm wasn't bringing her any luck. Times were so bad that she didn't even have any money to buy black mourning clothes for Muharram. Lonely and idle, Sultana felt as if she was wasting her days away. Until she met Shankar. Confusing, intriguing and unlike any other man she'd ever met—and she'd met more than her share of men—Shankar was just like her and yet nothing like her. What she didn't realize though was that with a curious exchange and the promise of a black salwar, hers and Shankar's lives were about to be entangled in ways she could never have imagined. Written in Manto's typically engaging style, The Black Shalwarand its surprising twist at the end is as bewitching as Sultana and as unexpected as Shankar.

The Black Shalwar

अगर आपको मेरी कहानियाँ अश्लील या गंदी लगती हैं, तो जिस समाज में आप रह रहे हैं, वह अश्लील और गंदा है। मेरी कहानियाँ तो केवल सच दर्शाती हैं... अक्सर ऐसा कहते थे मंटो जब उन पर अश्लीलता के इल्ज़ाम लगते। बेबाक सच लिखने वाले मंटो बहुत से ऐसे मुद्दों पर भी लिखते जिन्हें उस समय के समाज में बंद दरवाज़ों के पीछे दबा कर, छुपा कर रखा जाता था। सच सामने लाने के साथ, कहानी कहने की अपनी बेमिसाल अदा और उर्दू ज़बान पर बेजोड़ पकड़ ने सआदत हसन मंटो को कहानी का बेताज बादशाह बना दिया। मात्र 43 सालों की ज़िंदगी में उन्होंने 200 से अधिक कहानियाँ, एक उपन्यास, तीन निबन्ध-संग्रह और अनेक नाटक, रेडियो और फ़िल्म पटकथाएँ लिखीं। फ्रेंच और रूसी लेखकों से प्रभावित, वामपंथी सोच वाले मंटो के लेखन में सच्चाई को ऐसे पेश करने की ताकत है जो लंबे अर्से तक पाठक के दिलोदिमाग पर अपनी पकड़ बनाए रखती है। 2012 में पूरे हिन्दुस्तान में मनाई गई मंटो की जन्म-शताब्दी इस बात का सबूत है कि मंटो आज भी अपने पाठकों और प्रशंसकों के लिए ज़िंदा हैं।

Boo Aur Anya Kahaniyan

A conversation, a litany, a prayer—one of these three will usually bail you out of a tricky situation. But there are times when all the three combined don't hold enough power to keep the inevitable at bay. Even as the woman offers all that she can, deep down she knows that what's done is done. Her cries will disappear into a void just like everything else. She doesn't know what else to do. What else can she do? Manto's genius lies in presenting the most complex characters and their circumstances in the simplest manner, and nowhere is this more evident than in By the Roadside. While the story was written more than half a decade ago, this powerful take on women in our country is still as relevant today.

By the Roadside

Toba Tek Singh aur anya kahaniyan

It was a day just like today—the leaves of the peepul tree outside his window were drenched in the rain—and yet Randheer knew, today was nowhere close to the day he was desperately trying to hold on to. What is it about memories and the way our bodies remember things? Why is it that just the absence of one thing—her smell—can change everything about a day that seems exactly how he remembers it? Do we shape our memories or do our memories shape us? Every bit as evocative as it is lyrical, Smell is what happens when excellent prose tells the story of intriguing characters. Read on to experience a masterpiece by the master of short fiction, Manto.

Smell

If there is one thing that Manto has always wanted to understand, but never has, is this: why is that singles—men not interested in getting married, ever—are so unnaturally obsessed with empty bottles and cans. Be it his fifty-year-old relative, his friend who is a reader at the high court, or the retired Colonel Sahib, all of them have one thing in common: a collection of empty bottles and cans spread all over their homes. Manto wishes to make sense of this fascination, but it isn't something that can be explained easily in psychological terms. Until, one day, he meets Ram Saroop, the superstar, who is not just single but has an entire room full of empty rum bottles and cigarette packs in his small flat by the sea at Shivaji Park. Will Ram Saroop finally help Manto solve this bizarre mystery? One of the lighter stories from Manto's repertoire of short fiction, Empty Bottles, Empty Cans is an interesting take on the concept of emptiness and a generation of single men experiencing it.

Saadat Hasan Manto

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