Well… a followup from nia’s thread where I was reminded of a short-story/play I read during my high school years for my A-Levels Urdu exam…Toba Tek Singh - by Saadat Hasan Manto
The play analyzes the post-colonial period in the subcontinent and deals with the separation of India and Pakistan. It looks at the situation by questioning controversial themes from history. It tells the story of exchange of mental institution inmates - their transfer from one country to another. The patients themselves had no idea whether they were in Pakistan or India.
Manto’s story follows a man called Bishan Singh from the village of Toba Tek Singh, and he had been referred to by the same name in the lunatic asylum. During the changeover, Singh becomes so confused as to the precise location of his native village that he stands still on the border between India and Pakistan and falls down. The story ends: ** ‘There, on that stretch of no-man’s-land, lay Toba Tek Singh’ **… portentous of both, the man and the village.
I find the story very entrancing, and what better way to do a psychoanalysis then through the eyes of the mental institution inmates
http://www3.pak.org/gupshup/smilies/smile.gif
- I did a search on google… and if anyone wants to read the story in urdu, its at: http://www.eurdubazaar.com/images/manto/a1.html
and a short summary in English at: http://www.sikh-history.com/literature/stories/tobatek.html
[This message has been edited by Umar Talib (edited July 22, 2002).]