Paproudis Forgotten Hero

The librarys collection includes only two or three translated books of Mantos works,such as Saadat Hasan Manto de Afsane,translated by Sudhir Kumar Sudhir,and Manto de Rang,translated by Mohan Bhandari; the rest are books by other Punjabi authors. Though the library doesnt charge a fee for borrowing the books,it attracts only one or two readers a month,laments Gulzar Singh Sandhu,Punjabi writer,member of the Punjabi Sahitya Sabha,and in-charge of the library.

The poor response to Manto Yaadgari is reflective of Paproudis apathy to its son. Today,the young dont know and the old dont remember Manto in the village; and neither care,even as the literary world celebrates the writers 100th birth anniversary. Ujagar Singh,a former village sarpanch in his early 90s,shares a few faded memories: Manto was born in this village,but stayed here only during summers with his family. He used to stay in Shimla with his father most of the time. He hardly interacted with people; he would sit in the orchards the whole day,doing nothing,or just wander about in the village.

Mantos reticence had earned him the tag of ghuggu,Punjabi for a very quiet,even dumb person,says Acchar Singh,an elderly villager. Till his teenage,no one knew of his profound writing skills. He never shared his ideas with anyone. We came to know about them only after he went to Mumbai and became famous, he says.

The house where Mantos family lived for 15 years was auctioned by the government after Partition,and bought by one Ralla Singh. He gave the highest bid,and became the owner. Now,no one knows anything about Manto or his family. We are the owners, says Rallas daughter-in-law Surinder Kaur,rather firmly,as she sits on a charpoy outside a large house which has a fresh coat of pink paint. She has no recollections about the size of Mantos kuccha house,or the price for which it was sold,but villagers say it was sold at a throwaway price.

Sandhu had asked Kaurs family for a small space in their house to be devoted to a library in Mantos name for a monthly rent of Rs 500,but they disagreed. We tried hard to convince them,but they refused. No one else,too,was willing to rent out space to us,so we decided to open it in a gurudwara, he says. But the library may shift out of there too soon. No one here seems interested in Manto. We dont expect villagers to maintain this library well. So,we plan to shift it to Samrala town. We are already talking with a lawyer to open the library in his home, says Sandhu.