Saadat Hasan Mantos 99th birth anniversary today

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Saadat Hasan Mantos 99th birth anniversary today

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The 99th birth anniversary of Urdu short story writer Saadat Hasan Manto is being observed.

11 May,2011 09:37 am

Saadat Hasan Manto was born on May 11, 1912, in Samrala in the Ludhiana district of Indian Punjab. His father, Ghulam Hasan Manto was a sub-judge in Amritsar.Despite having no extraordinary educational back ground, Manto combined psychoanalysis with human behaviour in his writings and was arguably one of the best short story writers of the 20th century.He 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 and two collections of personal sketches.No other writer comes close to the class of Saadat Hasan Manto in nascent nation after 1947.No part of human existence remains untouched or taboo for him, he sincerely brought out stories of prostitutes and pimps alike, just as he highlighted the subversive sexual slavery of the women of his times.His first story, Tamasha, was based on the Jallianwala Bagh massacre at Amritsar. Though his earlier works influenced by the progressive writers of his times showed marked leftist and socialist leanings, his later work progressively became stark in portraying the darkness of the human psyche. Some of his works have been translated into other languages.He died on January 18, 1955.