'Sadaat Hasan Manto finest chronicler of Mumbai'

Almost every great city in modern world has had a chronicler of its own who negotiates with characteristic ease untold stories of people and places.
"In Sadaat Hasan's Manto, 'Bombay' has its finest chronicler," says Aakar Patel who has edited and translated Manto's writings from Urdu into a new book "Why I Write: Essays by Saadat Hasan Manto."
The book contains stories about Mumbai by Manto, who is better known for his writing about Partition. Although Manto never compiled all his stories based on Mumbai in a single volume, his angst-ridden pieces form part of the recently launched collection of non-fiction writings.

"Migrating from Amritsar, Bombay is where Manto came into his own and developed a style which he held on to," says Patel.
"Living and working in Bombay was the happiest phase of Manto's life. He was one of the very few writers who recognised the powerful hold of popular culture in people's imagination, including the hindi film industry," says Patel.
The rationale, says the author could be that "Manto led a very ordinary life. He was not a man of great culture or high art".

Mantos' style, says Patel was in ideal journalistic fashion - spare, descriptive and attentive.
The viciousness of Partition, in many ways, transformed him as a writer and Manto's pieces gradually became darker, leaving behind the playfulness of his Bombay days.

"He was one of the very few writers who could see through the fallacy in founding a state on the pillars of religion," says Patel.