Saadat Hasan Manto

“Dear God, Compassionate and Merciful, Master of the Universe, we who are steeped in sin, kneel in supplication before Your throne and beseech You to recall from this world Saadat Hasan Manto, son of Ghulam Hasan Manto, who was a man of great piety. Take him away, O Lord, for he runs off from fragrance, chasing filth. He hates the bright sun, preferring dark labyrinths. He has nothing but contempt for modesty but is fascinated by the naked and the shameless. He hates what is sweet, but will give his life to sample what is bitter. He does not so much as look at housewives but is entranced by the company of whores. He will not go near running waters, but loves to wade through slush. Where others weep, he laughs; where they laugh, he weeps. Evil--blackened faces he loves to wash with tender care to highlight their features. He never thinks about You, preferring to follow Satan everywhere, the same fallen angel who once disobeyed You.”

Meet Saadat Hasan Manto, the original freethinker and teller of dark tales who some consider as the greatest South Asian writer of short stories in the 20th century. We may not agree with them but we need to celebrate our freethinkers. When they show us the mirror we should reflect on what we see rather than break the mirror. We need to be curious, but we also need to be critical. We need to ask why, but we also need to ask why not. We need to analyze, but we also need to synthesize.