Salmam Rushdie’s quote on the cover of Bombay Stories by Saadat Hasan Manto
calls the author “the undisputed master of the modern Indian short story.” In
reference to his writing skills, one could hardly disagree. His topic selections however, left me
uncomfortable.
Manto did not write a history of India or Pakistan, but his writings
are set in that part of history spanning their partition – two countries, before
and after. It’s a gold mine of a literary period, a topic central to two
of my favorite books: Vikram Seth’s A Suitable Boy, and Rushdie’s Midnight’sChildren, both which are epic in scale.
Manto’s short stories are the opposite, individual short stories about day-to-day
life, with the epic nature of the era being a not-all-that-important backdrop.
It wasn’t an easy era to be having a day-to-day life. The social upheaval caused
by independence and partition impacted everything, particularly the country’s
economy.
Bombay Stories is a collection of 14 short stories written by Manto
about his years in Mumbai, known as Bombay in the colonial period. In a sense,
his personal story isn’t that unusual: small town boy moves to the big city to hopefully find success. But
again, the era makes it anything but the usual story.
Concurrent with this time period was another culturally significant
series of events, the early days of what would become Bollywood. The more autobiographical
of stories are about how he came to the city as a writer, yearning to be a
scriptwriter. He worked as a
reporter while waiting for that dream to play out, taking whatever job paid. He wasn’t alone in this career path, as
anyone familiar with the waiter-actor connection to the film industry can
attest. Manto ended up having some success both as a reporter and as a
scriptwriter, receiving writing credits for some early Bollywood films.
Perhaps my favorite of the selections is a story titled Mummy. In it the character referred to as Mummy takes
under her wings an assortment of aspirants to acting careers, to literary fame,
and to marrying-for-money dreamers; caring for all of them through life’s ups
and downs -- while managing a prostitution ring on the side.
Hamid’s Baby is also an interesting short story. It is about a married man
who may, or may not have, fathered a daughter by a prostitute. Economics dictate the girl will probably grow
up to be a prostitute, which is okay if it’s not his child, but horrifying to
him if it is his child. He’ll never know
for sure.
Prostitution, the world’s oldest profession, plays a major role in most
of these stories. In Bombay Stories it’s
an accurate reflection of the economic times, and it’s not unlike the aspiring
writers and actors -- you do what you gotta do to survive, until you no longer
have to do it. And, I personally don’t make any value judgements about the
subject. What leads to my discomfort is
the blatant sexism of the arrangements portrayed in this book – but, we are
talking about 100 years ago, except I know that in parts of the world,
including big city America, that 100 years ago is today.
Recommendation: If one is a student
of India, or Bollywood, yes.
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