Saadat Hassan Mantos 100th birthday today

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Saadat Hassan Mantos 100th birthday today

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The 100th birthday of renowned short story writer Saadat Hassan Manto is being observed today.

11 May,2012 04:11 am

Saadat Hassan Manto was born in Samrala, in the Ludhiana district of the Punjab in a Kashmiri Muslim family of barristers, on May 11, 1912.Saadat Hasan Manto received his early education at Muslim High School in Amritsar, but he remained a misfit throughout in school years, rapidly losing motivation in studies, ending up failing twice in matriculation. His only love during those days, was reading English novels.In 1931, he finally passed out of school and joined Hindu Sabha College in Amritsar, which was already volatile due the independence movement, soon it reflected in his first story, Tamasha, based on the Jallianwala Bagh massacreAfter his father died in 1932, he sobered up a bit to support his mother. The big turning point in his life came, when in 1933 at age 21, he met Abdul Bari Alig, a scholar and polemic writer, in Amritsar who encouraged to him find his true talents and read Russian and French authors.He is best known for his short stories, Bu (Odour), Khol Do (Open It), Thanda Gosht (Cold Meat), and his magnum opus, Toba Tek Singh.Manto was also a film and radio scriptwriter, and journalist. In his short life, he published twenty-two collections of short stories, one novel, five collections of radio plays, three collections of essays, two collections of personal sketches.Manto was tried for obscenity half-a-dozen times, thrice before 1947 and thrice after 1947 in Pakistan, but never convicted. Some of his works have been translated in other languages.