Sahae

(Penguin Petit)

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“If you killed a bad man, what you would have killed was not his badness, but the man himself.”

As Mumtaz prepares to leave for Pakistan—a concept that in itself seems strange—Juggal can’t shake away the feeling of guilt. His closest friend, his confidante was leaving because of what he said and the strange thing was, Juggal wasn’t sure whether his guilt had to do with the fact that Mumtaz was leaving or the fact that he’d meant what he said: “I would kill you.”

Partition will forever be that one event that created and destroyed so much in its wake for India and Pakistan. Lands, homes, lives, and relationships suffered, turning neighbours into strangers, friends into foes. Even as Mumtaz bids a reluctant farewell to Bombay, he can’t stop thinking of Sahae, the pimp with a heart of gold, a man who lived a life of contradictions until his very last breath.

Manto’s genius lies in telling stories whose characters forever remain a suspect to conventional morality. With Sahae, he also manages to show us how his thinking was way ahead of his times. Powerful and heartwrenching, this is short fiction at its best.