Why I Write

One of the greatest raconteurs of 20th century,

Saadat Hasan Manto declares that he was forced

to write when his wife routinely demanded

that he put bread on the table for the family. He doesn’t attribute any genius to his skills as a

writer and convinces his readers that the stories

tossed a salad. Equally, Manto treats his tryst

with Bollywood with disdain and unmasks the

cardboard lives of tinsel town when a horse is

painted to double up for a zebra or multiple fans

rotate to create a deluge. Two of Manto’s favourite

and recurring themes – women and Partition—

bizarre morality in the context of feminine

beauty and the futile presence of religiosity in

the creation of a nation he was to adopt later in

greatest writer, translated by well known author

and journalist, Aakar Patel showcases Saadat

Hasan Manto’s brilliance while dealing with life’s

most mundane things -- graveyards, bumming

from mythology – and a sharp dissection of what

ails the subcontinent even after 6 decades—Hindi

or Urdu, vile politicians and the hopelessness of

living under the shadow of fear.