Vol. 5 Issue 28 – Book Review: ‘Manto Selected Short Stories’ translated by Aatish Taseer

** This book review is submitted by Dr. Krati Sharma, Asst. Prof. ,Dept. of English, JECRC UDML College of Engg., Jaipur, India. 

Translation is a boon for readers. Translation of a text is very cautious thing. Aatish Taseer has put lot of effort with the translation of short stories of Sadat Hasan  Manto. Manto is one of the acclaimed Urdu writer and master of short stories. In this volume number of his stories has been taken up by the translator. One can easily find that in translation the flavor of Manto is intact.

This is a collection of short stories. This gives a glimpse of variety of themes. It consists of the translation of his famous stories, Khol Do, and Toba Tek Singh this two are the masterpieces which harp on the issue of partition and the agony behind it. Another title , The Mice of Shah Dulah, is revolved round the mother’s carve for her son devoted in the service of Shah Dulah. Manto has beautifully reveals the pain and agony of a mother. In License  Nesti the protagonist challenged the patriarchal society by opting the vocation of coachwoman. The story titled Freedom  , satires on the political upheaval going in the freedom stuggle. The after effects of Jalliawallah   Bagh massacre has been minutely observed by Manto . He writes, “ Tents and makeshift walls had come up everywhere”. In other story titled Blouse Manto very elegantly and candidly stroke the change from childhood to adulthood of a servant.

The language and the description of the stories are very natural. One can get the glimpses of middle class Indian society through them. Story titled  Ram Khilawan  is very heart touching one. It portrays the change in nature of  people of Hindu Muslim community after partition. Its theme is very simple but very challenging to narrate such human emotions.

The stories like Smell and Ten Rupees  has the undercurrent of symbols . One can find justification being made by Aatish Taseer in the selected stories.The fear of Khaled Mian in the story titled Khaled Mian  strikingly conveys the horror of a father who dream of losing his son before he turns up a year. The chase between dream and reality is remarkable piece of writing.

This translation by Aatish Taseer has given an opportunity to English readers to relish the Urdu short stories of Manto. The stories which are selected here are of different themes and very convincing in nature. The length of stories are not confined some are very short like Khol Do  some are quite lengthy like Freedom. One can find the pang of partition, freedom struggle, longings, loneliness,  affection and obsession in these stories. All the stories are stroking the shade of human nature very aptly and clearly.

Aatish Taseer has done a good job by translating these stories from Urdu to English and increased its readership. Salman Rushdie declares,” The undisputed master of the Indian short stories” for Manto and this volume seems to justify this statement.