Baajoo Kee Gulley (The Side Lane)

azraadil---38

Thank you very much.

Manto belongs to a previous generation and I live with him through his work.He,however,will live for centuries.

You write pretty well.Please continue.CHOWK is a good sounding board.Faiz has written:

``Koshish ba`har`haal kaisee bhee huqueer kyoon naa ho,funn sey faraar aur sharmsaaree pur faique hai``(dust e sabaa).That gave me a lot of nerve---and I hope it works.

freethinker--34

Out of so much stuff he wrote, I think there are only three which are about the mundane, garish, and insipid side of the prostitutes viz Hathak, kaali Shalvaar, and Khoshia.

It is again to Mantos credit that somehow the public remembers him for only these ones.Toba TS is good but it was also hyped,politicised and co-opted by `progressive` do-gooders. Otherwise, in all probability, that would have also remained buried as an unknown.I think Nayaa Quanoon and Mozail deserve more, if not equal, attention.

Dear Hamzad afaqui, hello.

I really liked the way you wrote about Manto. I am also a fan of urdu literature and giants like Manto. I also write but it`s never good enough, may be some day before I die I`ll have something in my hand, but what`s the use then.

I like the way you interact with Manto, true!he`ld be bit ticked off by guys like you, but then if you two were living in the same period, he must have been humongous giant, in the world of urdu literature. Not that he is not now, but imagin the size of Manto!

Keep it up and I wish you all the best in the world of literature, be it urdu or english

Urstruly--35

Shamsur-Rehman Farooqui has covered the territory about ``Attar`s Launda`` very well in his monumental & seminal work on Meer.It is NOT what you & so many others have in mind.

``Kis ney?

Kis----ney,

Yeh khail rachayaa.

Upnay aap subhee kuchh kar kay

Upnaa AAp chhupayaa

Kis ney?

Komal komal pyaarey poday

dhaan paan matvaray poday

inn pey aakar kis ney chhirkee

rang roop kee mayaa?

Upnay aap subhee kuchh kar kay

Upnaa AAp chhupayaa,

Kis ney?

Undhharay mein sotay thay yeh

bilkul bai-sudhh hotay thay yeh

Neend-puree key mudhh maaton ko

Neend sey aan jagayaa

Upnay AAp subhhee kuchh kar kay

Upnaa AAp chhupaya

kis ney?

_____________________________________.

What I said was if you know the end of the movie would you enjoy it as much or even consider seeing it?Story-telling is everything,my reformed Casanova.

Remember a woman is all Ears & a man is all Eyes.

(Explaining this would ruin it---but it has truly been coined by,-----urstruly(MEEE).:-)

Manto was a rebel; he rebelled against the hypocrisy of our society. And luckily he knew the art of exposing these hypocrisies in his stories. In a way, he was more familiar and friendly with ‘heera mandi’ than the ‘shahi masjid’, (I do not honestly mean to offend any sensibilities; we are talking about Manto,right.), for the simple reason that a mosque is a brick and mortar structure while the ‘mandi’ is populated with living human beings whom the society have discarded like a filthy rag. Yet the society needs this filthy rag for its own pleasure and exploitation; it cannot totally dispose of it. Manto was sick of this dualism.

Another beautiful story written by Khwaja Ahmad Abbas, I believe, was called Anandi; Anandi was the name of a prostitute. This is the story of prostitutes, their brothel, and the ‘respectables and elders’ of the ciry. The story goes something like this:

The respectables of the city assemble, discuss and decide that the brothel was indeed a ‘cancer in the heart of their city’ and should be removed. On their vehement protest, the city management expelled the prostitutes and ordained that they would not inhabit within a certain radius, say ten miles (I do not remember the details accurately).

The prostitutes had no recourse and perforce moved to a suitable location at the specified distance. In the beginning, their dwellings were shabby and simple mud houses with minimum utilities. There were no ‘paan wala and cigarette wala’ shops. But those of the old city, who needed to ‘let it out’ were not deterred by these obvious shortcomings of the location. The business flourished, and money started flowing in steadily. By and by, the prostitutes built impressive houses and furnished them for comfort and a degree of luxury. Small businesses grew up; paan and cigarette stalls came into existence and restaurants followed suit. The initial shabbiness disappeared. In time, the city respectables found it inconvenient to drive on muddy roads. They pleaded with the city management to build new roads, new utilities, e.g., electricity, water, etc., on the plea that the prostitutes were also human beings and deserved to be cared for. The roads were built and the new development was not handicapped in any way, compared with the city; it was indeed better than the city. And then?

The newer generation of the city respectables comes into action. How could they tolerate such a ‘cancer in the soul of their city’. But this time around, the prostitutes decided to fight. Their spokesperson was Anandi who was familiar with the whole story. The suit was fought in the court and won by the prostitutes. Although this story is not written by Manto, but it sure is in his spirit.

The kind of rebel that Manto was, is really hidden inside all of us. Most of us keep it hidden for fear of the society in which we live. But once in a long while, a ‘Manto’ comes along. He had an exquisite skill to portray such hypocrisies in his short stories.

He was a great short story writer and many of us are discovering him belatedly. Better late than never.

Regar

Hamzad Afaqui

I think our writers and our poets (urdu) have a penchant for attaching a mystery to the woman, especially, the women of loose character and sometimes even to the at`tar ka londa. Sure they have a story to tell but so does everyone else.

But I fear that if everybody starts thinking like me, that will be an end of storytelling. God! I cannot imagine a world more horrible than that; a world where no one has to tell a story. Shuddering.

semipreciousme---16

When Manto was working at All India Radio as a scriptwriter there among others was Noon Meem Rashid.

Manto did not like Rashids` phoniness and so in one of his scripts for radio he lampooned Rashids writing style.

Rashid was infuriated,perhaps also because he was the section-head of the department as well.But he just iternalised it and went about as if nothing bothered him.Until of course the right time---.

So when Manto wrote his next script he went around showing it to his collegues.Now Manto was full of impatience & impulse and wanted opinion on the piece right away.Then,walked in Rashid.

Manto had an Urdu typewriter which he was very proud of & typed all his scripts.He showed it to Rashid & anxiously watched Rashids face & was getting edgy to get Rashids` opinion.

Rashid read it real at ease & then handed the papers back to Manto and turned to leave.

``Kaisaa hai?Kaisaa hai?--Manto was really pushy.

And then Rashid in his classic,cool,& collected

style said:

``Nihayat achha type huaa hai``

And Ashk,who observed all this with glee wrote:``aur Manto,buquaul e khud `jull bhun kr kabaab ho gayaa```.

___________________________.

I hope you see the context & enjoyed this.

usrtruly--28

[Well, c`mon, she is a woman who used to leave her husband, sleeping, to see her lover-it is hard to expect such conviction from a woman of such character. Dont you think.]

No.I do not think so.

In matters of heart,I believe,there are no convictions.....only convenient compromises and ticking-tickling heartaches.

Umrao Jaan Adaa,in her asides to Mirza Rusvaa,has unpeeled some layers of the inner-most sanctum of a womans` heart & mind.

One of shair from HER ghazal(not Rusvaas`):

``Jis ko chaha tha ADA uss ko to hum paa naa sukay

Iss bahaanay sey magar,daikh lee dunyaa hum ney ``

SUPERB!is`nt it?-----very universal.taghghazul intoxicated.

__________________________________________________

``Aur phir uss nein kahaa:`Manto saab!aagul raastaa koi naeen,idhar baajoo kee gulley sey nikal jao```.

``Aur yoon mein baajoo kee gulley sey Pakistan bhaag aayaa``.

This is the last paragraph of a story(not fictional)---I cannot recall the title right now--where he narrates his last night with his friends.There is an emotion-heavy discussion,logical/illogical,coherent/senseless and sober/drunk which somehow manages to click and capture the kodak-moment of parting/partition.

He just couldn`t handle it.When he returned home,his friends thought that they have convinced him to stay.He on the other hand was completely shattered and just couldn`t be a party to take sides---so when the corner paan-waala tells him to take the baajoo kee gulley he feels he has been set free.

So,next day,like a thief,afraid to be caught,without talking to any of the friends,he leaves for Pakistan.

This story in many ways is such a succinct commentary on Partition,from a non-political non-leader view-point from which most of the scholars/intellectuals can benefit.

Urtruly,Dost-mittar,and Harpareet,free-thinker,tahmad(& others) would really appreciate it.

hamzad afaqui

semiprecious---16

”Thank you.

I had specifically requested CHOWK STAFF to edit this and also make the corrections you pointed out.It seems you at least read the piece with care & observed the punctuation errors.”

…i would never be as so presumptuous and hasty as to comment on anything without reading/thinking about it….ahem…

Sorry. plz replace the word Manto with Krishan in my last post.

Hamzad Afaqui

As a matter of fact Preeto also took my breath away when I read it the first time. I still remember it even though I had forgotten the title. When I read it some time, over a decade ago, it made me timid and cautious (for a while)on my the then lying-cheating-two-timing-heart-breaking spree. Manto did make his point very well. But now when so much time has gone by and I have travelled across the oceans I see the story from a very different angle. I think the way Preeto acted, when her husband tells her that it was him who killed her lover years ago, was not because she never forgot her first love but it was because of the embarassment of having coming to know that her husband knew all along about her escapades. Well, c`mon, she is a woman who used to leave her husband, sleeping, to see her lover-it is hard to expect such conviction from a woman of such character. Dont you think.

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http://www.theonion.com/onion3804/indo-pakistani_tensions.html

DETROIT— Indo-Pakistani tensions continue to escalate this week at the Eight-Mile and Telegraph Road Amoco, where hostilities between owner Rajesh Srinivasan and in-store Subway mini-franchise manager Majid Ashraf threaten to spill over into all-out war.



``We have made every effort to extend the hand of friendship to the Pakistani delegation that runs the Amoco Mart`s Subway Express,`` said the India-born Srinivasan, 49, in a statement to the press Monday. ``But that hand, my own hand with which I built this business for my family, has been repeatedly and without remorse slapped away.``

Leased and operated by Pakistani immigrant Ashraf and his family since March 1999, the in-store Subway occupies 30 percent of the Amoco Mart`s total retail space. Ever since their arrival, the Ashrafs have been the subject of increasingly inflammatory rhetoric from Srinivasan, who charges, among other things, that they are not mopping their fair share of the disputed territory near the coolers.

In a terse Feb. 1 statement to reporters, Ashraf struck back.

``I come to America to make business, not to be insulted by the son of a New Delhi whore,`` Ashraf said. ``I take my orders from [Subway regional manager] Larry [Ferber], not from son-of-b itch Indian dog who says to me where I mop and where I not mop.``

Though tensions have existed ever since the Ashrafs took over the Subway, the situation began sharply deteriorating in December of last year. Upon seeing Srinivasan sweep the parking lot at his wife`s behest, Ashraf mocked his Indian counterpart, calling him ``a quaking little baby goat`` and questioning the manhood of ``anyone who would take orders from a woman.``

``What Majid doesn`t recognize is that there are significant differences between his Islamic culture and Rajesh`s Hindu culture regarding gender roles,`` said Dr. James Sasser, a Harvard professor of Middle Eastern studies. ``But, to be fair, Rajesh didn`t help matters when he came after Majid with that squeegee.``

Relations further deteriorated on Jan. 20, when a dispute over cleaning-supplies inventory led to a full-blown shouting match between the small-business owners. For 45 minutes, Srinivasan and Ashraf loudly traded insults in full view of customers, and the episode reached its apex when Srinivasan called Ashraf ``a filthy, lying cheat lower than the untouchable caste of my native land.``

Srinivasan then spit on the floor in disdain, prompting Ashraf to retaliate by hurling an economy-sized container of Janitor In A Drum™ at his rival`s head.

Though the skirmish resulted in no serious injuries, it did end what little dialogue there had been between the two sides. Neither Ashraf nor Srinivasan is currently speaking to the other, and both are said to be hiding the employee bathroom key in an attempt to force the other out.



Acquired by the Srinivasan family in 1987, Eight-Mile and Telegraph Road Amoco has long been a hotbed of Indo-Pakistani tension, as its strategic location makes it critical to Pakistani cab drivers needing to refuel on their way from Detroit garages to the more lucrative suburban trade routes. Fluctuating gas prices have, over the years, resulted in strained relations between the station`s Indian owners and its Pakistani cab-driver customers, but the economic interdependence of the two groups in a highly competitive climate kept such tensions in check.

Given the volatility of the current situation, officials from Amoco and Subway, who license franchise rights to the Srinivasan and Ashraf families, are keeping a close eye on the troubled region.

``Something must be done, or we`re looking at a situation that could lead to all-out war,`` said Frederick Foss, Subway director of franchise relations for southeast Michigan. ``It`s in the best interests of everyone in the area that positive relations are maintained between the two sides.``

Community members are equally eager to see stability restored to the once-peaceful Amoco. Among the concerned local residents are Sandy Kreil, the nurse who gets coffee at the Amoco Mart on her way to work; local panhandlers ``Dan-O`` and ``Malik``; and Frannie Koenig, the elderly woman who drops in every morning for a Diet Dr. Pepper and a pack of Newport Lights.

In spite of the concern, diplomatic initiatives on the part of Subway and Amoco officials have met with failure.

``I do not see why I must refill ice machine every day when Ashraf`s customers have taken away 40 percent of my business for soda,`` said Srinivasan before walking out on a Jan. 11 negotiating session. ``You go die, Mr. Ashraf. I am not listening to you anymore.``

In the wake of the breakdown in negotiations, many observers are fearful that the Indian family will ``drop the bomb`` and refuse Ashraf access to the Dumpster behind the station, effectively forcing him to pay for a separate commercial garbage service and increase his costs beyond profitability. This move would leave Ashraf with little choice but to retaliate with a strike against the candy aisle.

``If such a scenario were to unfold, the devastation unleashed upon the Amoco and its surrounding environs would be vast,`` Sasser said. ``Without the Amoco Mart, locals would have to go all the way over to the Exxon on Gratiot [Avenue] for gas and snacks. Something must be done immediately, or it could spell doomsday for everyone.``

URSTRULY--23

Thank you that you noticed.I have attempted to retain the Manto diction in the dialogue.Although,I never met or heard his voice I tried to glean his speech mannerisms from the sentences he uttered in various ``dialogues`` which he utters.

I immensely like only one story by Krishan Chander(not that I`ve read most his work) and the name is ``PreetO``.I was a teenager then and I learnt so much from that story that it embedded as a creed as far as a womans` ``psyche`` is concerned.You must get hold of it pronto.

Just one line:``Aurat naheen bhooltee,aurat kabhee bhee naheen bhooltee.Jo loag sumjhtain hain kay aurat ko palang pur litaa kur chaar buchhay paidaa karday voh aurat ko bilkul naheen jaantay``

(This naa-bhoolnaa is about the FIRST man who awakens a woman sexually,whether he batrays or abandons her.)

On the other side is N.M.Rashid talking about a mans` psyche:``Uss kaa chahraa,usss kay khut o khaal yaad aatay naheen.

ikk birahnaa jism ubtukk yaad hai``.

_______________________________

Aag kaa daryaa has taught me a lot of the stuff which has become CHOWK staple now.That is why I do not participate in the Jinnah jinxes & Ghandhi-ghouls.

Gautams journey starts from Taxila where he is studying at the Takischilaa university(Did you go?).Oh how many times have I then visited this university & tried to relive the moment as Gautam Neelamber(my folks have forsaken me for my wierd ways).I made a very nice video where I tried to play Gautam Neelamber on the spot for one hour but then somehow my brood & their mother-hen saw no-money in it and cajoled me with their kajal-eyes to feed them at the foot of the hill.Later on they recorded something else on that tape ``To save you money!``--they tried to be nice.

semiprecious---16

Thank you.

I had specifically requested CHOWK STAFF to edit this and also make the corrections you pointed out.It seems you at least read the piece with care & observed the punctuation errors.

I hunt & peck and after his tedium I have no desire left to review or edit.It is a bad habit and I`ll try to overcome it.Your instructios have been a help.

____________________.

Sac---18

The ones who prosecuted Manto did so under British law(as adopted by Pakistan & India--British East India Act,1935).Please remember that both the countries were still a Dominion before 1955/56.It was a nominal ``self-rule`` masquerading as ``Independance``.

The court-trials were more to stifle criticism and commentary about the ``gentry``(inheritors of imperialistic culture) than the class you have in mind.The charges about lewdness & vulgarity were just a cover.Far more ``pornographic`` literature is available in Urdu,both in prose & poetry,and some writers were even a part of the curriculum.

During his last trial it was a heavy-bearded Jama`at e Islami judge who let him go free with a nominal fine.In fact he asked Manto how much should he be fined(to be easy on him).Manto, being hard of hearing thought that the judge is asking what time it was.Whatever Manto said (i do not recall now,maybe 4/5) that is the amount he paid.Later on the judge,Manto & some friends were together at a restaurant where all except the judge were drinking.There is a very interesting account of that meeting,narrated by Manto and the Judge.The judge has expressed so much love & admiration for Manto because Manto came across to him as an innocent & pure baby.``Kyoon jee, aap ney mujhay jurmaana kyoon kiyaa?`` was the first forthright question, without rancour Manto put to the judge when they met that evening.Their exchange of letters after that are a masterpiece on expression of free ideas & the importance of censorship/censure in a healthy society.

PS:I fully relish my ``complexity``,I am what DRUMZ/YLH would be about two decades later---or at least so I hope.Just teasing you DRUMZ/YLH,no offence fellas.