One of greatest short story-writers of all time Saadat Hasan Manto was remembered on his death anniversary on Friday (yesterday). Saadat Manto, a great South Asian Urdu short story writer, was born on May 11, 1916. Upon Abdul Bari Alig’s motivation, Manto attempted Urdu translation of The Last Days of a Condemned Man. Manto completed the translation and sold it to the Urdu Book Stall located in Lahore, under the title Sarguzasht-e-Aseer. Having now become a published author, Manto aided by Hasan Abbas soon attempted a translation of Oscar Wilde’s Vera, which was published in 1934. Manto also continued to try his hand at writing original short stories in Urdu, including “Inqlab Pasand”. Later his, story “Tamasha” and several others were put together into Manto’s first collection of original short stories in Urdu titled “Atish Pare”, published in 1936. He came to Lahore and joined a newspaper called Paras. In late 1936, he accepted an invitation to edit the weekly Musawwir and justified his existence in Lahore after leaving behind Bombay (currently known as Mumbai). In 1941, Manto came to Delhi and accepted a writing job for Urdu Service of All India Radio. Soon four of his radio shows were published after finding the right audience. The controversial short story collection Dhuan came out later on.
