Follow your nose

Updated On: 29 January, 2022 09:39 AM IST | Mumbai | Sammohinee Ghosh

A Delhi-based theatre group will read out Manto’s Boo, a story that compels us to think of emotions through colours and smells

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Monib Ahmad reading Lamb to the Slaughter by Roald Dahl

Boo is one of the many stories that author Saadat Hasan Manto was tried for when he was trying to eke out a living through his writings. The author was hauled up by the courts from one time to another on charges of obscenity. But what part of the smell of wet earth is obscene? What part of desiring someone you remember for her rain-soaked earthy whiff is obscene? Perhaps, we define obscenity differently in different times. A dramatic reading of Boo by Takhleeq’s Sumaiyya Rehman will confront us with thoughts and questions about the subtle finesse of telling a sensual story. Manto was fearless in wielding his pen, but thankfully, his blunt honesty and often-derisive hilarity is recounted among readers even today.

Saadat Hasan Manto