The Sunday before the last Sunday I was in a train returning from Goa. Since I was aware I wouldn’t be able to visit Abids on that day I tried to look into bookstores in Goa. Luckily at Candolim where I was staying I found Broadway Books and checked out a whole section of books selling for only a hundred rupees each. I came across Jonathan Safran Froer’s ‘Everything is Illuminated’ which, for some reason, I did not buy and am now regretting it. Though I saw a board before a shop on which it was written that books bought and sold I couldn’t check out the store since it was always closed. I did not buy any book at Goa and hence was disappointed.
Last Sunday, having missed a visit on the Sunday before that, I was eager to check out the books on the pavement. Luckily it did not rain and after our usual conversation over tea in an Irani, I set out with Uma and Shrikant. It was Uma who spotted the Manto book and let me have it. A couple of months ago I had missed buying another Manto book by Rakshanda Jalil but this time I did not want to let it go. I paid one hundred rupees for ‘Black Margins’ which is published by Katha Asia Library. There are about nineteen stories in the book including a story with the title on the cover. There are also other interesting articles relating to Saadat Hasan Manto who has written some of the greatest short stories ever written about Partition. I’ve read only ‘Toba Tek Singh’ and ‘Open It’ before I bought the book. Now I can look forward to read some more stories translated by various authors.
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