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Naked Voices —
Stories and Sketches Saadat Hasan Manto Whenever I read any of Saadat Hasan Manto’s works, I’m reminded of his grand nephew — Abid Hasan Minto — whom I had met at a Progressive Writers’ meet held in New Delhi. Though it was almost three years back, yet I can’t forget my conversation with this gentleman — a senior Supreme Court advocate in Pakistan, president of the National Workers Party (NWP) and also a well-known literary critic. During our conversation, he revealed why he’d spelt his surname a little differently — instead of the ‘a’ in the Manto, there’s an ‘i’. His father had dropped the surname altogether and adopted the takhallus ‘Josh’, but he had decided to use the family name with this slight change of one alphabet. "Because the surname Manto was too closely associated with one single individual." And then he elaborated further, giving details of the Manto family. "We are ethnic Kashmiris so it is a Kashmiri surname. My father’s grandfather had shifted from Srinagar to Amritsar. In fact, my parents were born in Amritsar and my parents were related. My mother was the niece of Saifuddin Kichlu."
Then why those endless tales of his sexual flings with women of all shades? "Maybe it all happened before his marriage while he was living in Mumbai. He used to interact with people from all sections of society and there can be an underlying factor to it — that he was fascinated by the non-elite and those from socially lower strata but after his marriage he was a devoted husband and really loved his wife and children. He was also affected when his only son died as a child. Though he had three daughters, that loss played havoc with his life. No, it’s not the Partition chaos that affected him as much as the death of his little son. Somehow till the end he couldn’t get over it and it left him completely wrecked and devastated." Reading Naked Voices with these details in the background, I kept thinking about the political chaos of those decades, which did affect the lives of so many and also affected the very social and economic fabric of the subcontinent. And what I have liked particularly reading in this volume is this ‘letter’ that Manto wrote to Uncle Sam. It is titled — A Letter To Uncle Sam and dated December 16, 1951, and written from a Lahore address — 31 Lakshmi Mansion. Mall Road, Lahore. It’s a longish letter in the form of an essay and well packed with facts and laments. But this letter could not be posted since there was no money to buy a postage stamp. This is the reality that surrounds Manto’s life and connects one to him. Yes, you really feel connected to him and want to give him a hug of the deeply affectionate kind. Alas, he’s no more. Just his words, his stark sentiments, his ability to pour out, to foresee, to strike a note, to condemn, to ridicule, to comment. For, though this ‘letter’ was written almost six decades ago, till date its contents don’t seem to be outdated. It is one of the finest writings where Manto has outpoured the ethos of his entire life and along with that brought forth the disparities, the bitter realities and the bigger set of double standards persisting in the so called developed "superpower" of the world. Also, striking is that particular essay which he has written on himself. There’s as usual that tremendous readable flow to it and together with those patches of dark humour, the realities he’d been through, the blatant forms of criticism he’d been subjected to and much more. He is not just well aware of the rounds of criticism and blatant hammering, he converts them into great reading. That’s what great writers are all about. And, without great translators, the connectivity wouldn’t have been there. These works of Manto have been translated from Urdu to English and like always Rakhshanda Jalil has done a fine job. In fact, she’s of those few around who are equally fluent in English as well as in Urdu. A rare combination in today’s times.
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And
then I had to ask him those curiosity-ridden queries about Sadaat Hasan
Manto the noted writer who was also known for the so called twists in
his personality, the controversies. And this is what he told me: "Saadat
Hasan Manto was my father’s paternal uncle (chacha). I’d become
close to him when I went to Lahore around 1953 to study law. He was
already living there and I interacted with him regularly for two years,
till he died in 1955. Regarding him being mentally fragile that’s just
not true. He wasn’t mad; on the contrary, he was very clever. It’s
just that he was an alcoholic and in those days there were no
de-addiction centres for alcoholics, so people with problems related to
alcohol were dumped in asylums. And regarding his name being linked with
prostitutes etc. I can say with great confidence that he was absolutely
in love with his wife — she was also an ethnic Kashmiri like us and
her family had shifted to Africa but had later shifted to Mumbai and
that’s where they had met and married and remained happily
married."