The Quilt

Awesome story. My first introduction to Ismat Chughtai.

PTV has made really nice dramas out of short stories. Haven`t seen Manto`s I think, but the series of `aik muhabat soa afsanay` and then several separate ones of Ashfaque Ahmed were enjoyable.

Good attempt at translating what has become a classic Urdu short story. Still, it has already been translated professionally by Tahira Naqvi and published in the UK. You can buy it from amazon here:



http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/8185107106/qid=1059091450/sr=1-6/ref=sr_1_0_6/026-2965449-0232431

The translation by Tahira Naqvi is excellent but still not as effective as the original Urdu.
Good effort, Godot.

Still the story is more famous because of its controversial subject than any literary greatness to be honest...

Wow!
This really is a daring piece of work coming from a Pakistani, Muslim woman, and I agree with the replies from both danny-khi and sac. Even though I`m a Literature student, I admit quite shamefully, that I havent read a lot of Pakistani or Urdu literature. I do know that its waaayy better than Western lit, but this is the first time I`ve come across Pakistani literature that talks about something that happens so much all around us but is still considered something that shouldnt be talked about. I dont know if a lot of people know about this but Indus Vision, a Pakistani channel that airs Urdu drama serials had a whole Manto week and showed a lot of his short stories` televised versions. That was something I enjoyed immensely!
And I`m glad you translated this story, because ignorant people like me would think a million times before reading something in Urdu and then ask a million questions about it because most of it would just go over my head! :p I know... my bad!
I`d love some more of this though!

Thanks god finally some one brought a master peice to the global readers. What you think? how could we print, write, publish and discuss such master peices when we don`t even allow ourselves to enjoy reading them.

Whenever I read this story it makes me think that why are we not allowed to talk, read and write about reality?

I remember when I was a child I asked my mom that if the god is so big then why He is invisible. She said because he lives too far. I asked ``but you said he is every where now you are saying he lives too far?`` and she didn`t reply and asked me not to ask such foolish questions. :)

Godot:

You chose a difficult one to translate. But it still came out OK. Like many of Manto`s works, a lot of Ismat`s work is largely forgettable. But this is one of her better ones. And owing to the controversy it generated at the time it does represent kind of a milestone. I wonder if there were any equally daring non-Muslim women writers in the subcontinent at the time. Anyone?

later
-sac