‘Harsh but True’ are the three words which come to mind when you hear the name ‘Saadat Hassan Manto’. He was a legend. He was born in 1912 before the ‘unfortunate’ partition of India and Pakistan. He vociferously stood against the mishaps that happened during the partition period which he wrote about in his writings. Not only this, he clearly spoke about prostitutes and other fringe elements of the society who are still considered ‘taboo’. But here, I will not talk about his gore writings. Instead, in this post, I will be highlighting 3 of his short stories which have cast a long-lasting impression on the readers.

1) Thanda Gosht (1950)

To begin with, I will be giving a brief about a story which has its roots in the time of Indo-Pak partition of 1947. The story highlighted the fact how the harsh partition killed people before they were physically killed. It is the story of a Muslim girl who was found already dead by a Sikh man when he was violating her after killing her family members.

2) Badsurat (1949)

This was the story about two sisters. This story highlighted the emotion of ‘love’ and ‘sibling-rivalry’ in a very true and subtle way. There lived two sisters among which one was considered an emblem of beauty and the other as ‘an ugly soul’ for the outside world. How their physical features changed their world is the crux of the story.

3) Burquey (1955)

Burquey was a subtle story and was about a young guy who got confused about many girls wearing ‘burkha’. The main character of the story named ‘Zaheer’ was unable to recognize her beloved and by mistake expressed his love to the girl he never loved. All this confusion began due to the attire called ‘burkha’ which is a garment worn by women in the Muslim culture. You cannot even see a face of the girl if she is wearing a ‘burkha’. Despite having a simple subject, the story packs many thrills and laughter and is loved by the readers even today.