Fourth Letter to Uncle Sam

The sunday times, the Times of India`s sunday edition did a wonderful piece on Manto in yesterday`s paper. After having read these letters again and again it was great to see a photograph of the man himself, seated next to his three young daughters.

His connection with the city of Mumbai is remarkable itself. In his own words, he started dying the moment he left Bombay.

Just another victim of the brutal partition of this sub-continent.



cheers.

Hope springs eternal.

Funny. I`ve just gotten into reading manto (English translation) and after reading these I think I`ll stick with him. I read a few letters quite like these on a Manto website as well. Anyho.

Saving Manto`s house....:)


I`ve been quite busy over the past few weeks in several different commitments and other things ... and one of them is as follows... Ferozk and I have managed to bring the Indian petroleum minister to his birthplace in Lahore....

It all started one day when Feroz and I were brainstorming for ideas to preserve and save Lakshmi Mansions from commercialisation... and it hit us... WHY not invite Mani Shankar Aiyar, when he comes to visit Pakistan for the oil pipeline discussions...

Needless to say the result are quite gratifying....



http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_18-5-2005_pg7_20


Wednesday, May 18, 2005

Lakshmi Mansion heritage being threatened by commercialisation

By Yasser L Hamdani

LAHORE: What do these people have in common: Meraj Khalid, former Pakistani prime minister, Saadat Hassan Manto, world renowned short story writer, Zafrullah Chaudhry, the first foreign minister of Pakistan, and Mani Shankar Aiyar, the Indian petroleum minister? The answer is Lakshmi Mansion, a pre-partition residential establishment off The Mall and Hall Road, which now faces the threat of extinction because of extensive commercialisation.

Hall Road’s business establishments are slowly beginning to creep into the once peaceful enclave. Houses, some of them eight decades old, are being replaced by commercial plazas, creating a myriad of parking problems and other civic issues for the residents of the leafy Lakshmi Mansion environs, an additional reason why some of them are leaving. Though the area is registered as residential, Hall Road vendors have acquired property and there are visible signs of destruction. Shops selling music, movies and cellular phones have changed the residential locality forever. Now a new commercial plaza is being built within the enclave.

The residents of the area have gone to court in the past, most recently in 1996. A writ petition was filed that stopped construction temporarily. Later the area was reaffirmed as residential, but that would matter little given that many in the area are willing to sell. Residents have written to the chief minister to intervene personally.

“There is a Hall Road mafia that doesn’t stop at anything and will slowly engulf our neighbourhood,” said an elderly resident, residing there since independence.

Muhammad Usman, a Hall Road businessman and a member of one of the many traders’ associations on that road, told Daily Times that it was only a matter of time before all of Lakshmi Mansion fell into their hands since people wanted to sell and they wanted to buy. While regretting that it would mean the loss of a great historical heritage, Mr Usman said that anything was possible in a country like Pakistan. “As long as Meraj Khalid was alive, such acquisition was impossible but now things have changed,” he added.

The history of the residential enclave is older than independence. It was here that Mani Shankar Aiyar, the current Indian petroleum minister, was born in 1941. His family eventually moved to India at independence, but people in the neighbourhood still remember him.

The Lakshmi Mansion Residents Association has formally invited Mr Aiyar to come. “If the Indian government can accord a special status to the Neharwali Haveli area because President Musharraf was born there, why can’t the Pakistani government do the same and declare Lakshmi Mansion enclave heritage property?” asks one resident. It would be a great confidence-building measure, he adds.

Saadat Hassan Manto, arguably Pakistan’s greatest short story writer, moved to this area in January 1948. It was here that he wrote some of his finest short stories and sketches including Toba Tek Singh, Thanda Ghost, Khol Do and Mera Sahib. Today his daughter resides in the house which has become a memorial of sorts to the man hailed as Pakistan’s most gifted writer. The plaque that indicates that Manto once resided in the building has been vandalised with graffiti. “People often come looking to find material about Manto and we try and help the best we can,” Nighat Patel, Manto’s daughter, told Daily Times.

Meraj Khalid also lived here for a large part of his life. Lakshmi Mansion thus served on several occasions as the residence of the chief minister, National Assembly speaker and finally the prime minister of the country.

A small library and museum dedicated to the life and work of Mr Khalid today operates without government patronage. Since the former prime minister’s demise two years ago, the family has moved and the house now serves as the office building of Daily Jinnah, an Urdu newspaper.

There is also a beautiful park in the centre of this historical locality. Trees in this park are said to be over a 100 years old. If the area gets commercialised, it is feared that this lush green park might end up a concrete car park one day.




http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=main_29-5-2005_pg7
Sunday, May 29, 2005

Mani Shankar to visit birthplace in Lahore

By Yasser Hamdani

LAHORE: Mani Shankar Aiyar, the Indian petroleum minister, will visit his place of birth in Lahore during his upcoming visit to Pakistan to discuss the Iran-Pakistan-India pipeline, Daily Times has learnt.

Aiyar accepted an invitation from the Lakshmi Mansions Residents’ Association to visit the historic Lakshmi Mansions off of The Mall and Hall Road. Responding to the invitation letter from the general secretary of the association, Aiyar said, “I am honoured to accept your kind invitation to meet with members of Lakshmi Mansion Residents’ Association when I visit Lahore on Saturday, June 4.”

Aiyar was born at Laksmi Mansions in 1941. His family moved to India in 1947. Lakshmi Mansions residents feel Mani’s visit will help boost their efforts to preserve the historic neighbourhood.

Re: # 3

Harish My dear dear friend from Call center ...

I see that you`ve once again beaten the retreat from the following board...

http://www.chowk.com/show_article.cgi?aid=00005040&channel=chaathouse#interact


I do acknowledge that you sneaked in like the coward that you are to put up one more post but sicne then I`ve been waiting and waiting.... but seems like your mythology has been dented so much that you are unable to answer my questions as usual.

=== Interact Filtered ===
view this users filtered interacts

#9 Echo : That was very funny. Who is/was Ibne-Insha?

Khalid Hasan thanks for translating.

echoboom :
that Ismat Chughtai piece was a gem.

many thanks.

=== Interact Filtered ===
view this users filtered interacts

=== Interact Filtered ===
view this users filtered interacts

=== Interact Filtered ===
view this users filtered interacts

Re: # 13
kaka...
you are taking chacha boomboom`s class without shame or haya... so far it was the lafangis on the left and right..but chacha boomboom has never been either left or the right unless you have gone blind due to overuse of your palms...as you well know, he has always been obverse...so stop this kameengi immediately and get back to the lafangis...

ana#5

I remember that back in the 1950s, there used to be a half-lunatic newspaper vendor, who made it his job to stand at a chowk in Karol Bagh and yell at any girl returning from school who did not cover her head with her duppatta. I also remember my mother doing a ``ghund`` to hide her face whenever my grandfather, who lived in the same house, was nearby. Fast forward to 1970s. The ghund disappeared and women covered their head only in gurudwara or other places of worship or during certain ceremonies, e.g., during karva chauth.

I think that the situation in Pakistan was not very different during 1950s with a local counterpart of the half-lunatic newspaper vendor yelling at girls with uncovered head shouting at Bhatti Gate or Mohammadpura. Fast forward to 1970s. While the half-lunatic disappeared from the scene in Delhi, in Pakistan he was replaced by the respected Mullah who made duppatta and chador di-rigour in Pakistan.

Yes,India and Pakistan may have been the same nation half-centuries ago but they have certainly followed divergent paths.

good for killing time.

Glad to know that Mr. Manto also didn`t like APWA whole lot. Well after visiting their grandeur show of Meena bazaar in capital of Pakistan in the name of Handicrafts selling of lower middle class group , i could only come across world famous burger kids of islamabd buzzing around carbs outlets and bizarre aunties and half faced covered deep black glasses bureucrats and parking lot filled with vehicles of ``rishwat khaur`` ``sarkari afsaraan`` with ``peroxide blondes`` filling the spaces left.

And I cursed the idea of covering the whole distance of half miles of sports complex to reach a meena bazar which is a sort of fun-fair for general public but there idealogy revolved that only vips should come in CARS IN SPORTS COMPLEX OF ISLAMABAD killing the healthy atmosphere and aspect of the place and festivity associated with it making it embarassed for a pedestrain spectator and visitor. I don`t know when Pakistanis will come out of elite-progression metamorphism.

Glad to know that Mr. Manto also disn`t like APWA whole lot. Well after visiting their grandeur show of Meena bazaar in capital of Pakistan in the name of Handicrafts selling of lower middle class group , i could only come across world famous burger kids of islamabd buzzing around carbs outlets and bizarre aunties and half faced covered deep black glasses bureucrats and parking lot filled with vehicles of ``rishwat khaur`` ``sarkari afsaraan`` with ``peroxide blondes`` filling the spaces left.

And I cursed the idea of covering the whole distance of half miles of sports complex to reach a meena bazar which is a sort of fun-fair for general public but there idealogy revolved that only vips should come in CARS IN SPORTS COMPLEX OF ISLAMABAD killing the healthy atmosphere and aspect of the place and festivity associated with it making it embarassed for a pedestrain spectator and visitor. I don`t know when Pakistanis will come out of elite-progression metaphorism.

hey mister , uncle sam too busy having fun with your mother to bother about your letters. Anyways , keep writing !!!