SIYAAH HAASHIYE: Black borders. What is the written word but an attempt to capture feelings and emotions on paper? More often than not, it is a futile attempt. The deeper recesses of the human mind and heart can seldom be explored or expressed with words. Language has its own limitations and yet it can serve as a tool to liberate oneself of feelings like hopelessness or helplessness.

First published in 1947 (the year that India was divided), Siyaah Haashiye is a collection of 32 cameos written by Sa’adat Hasan Manto, often referred to as ‘the original enfant terrible of Urdu literature’. A man who had little regard for the societal or literary norms of any time, Manto tried to capture the truth of humanity and its downfall as he saw it.

Siyaah Haashiye are vignettes of the partition of India; written with the same dark blood that oozed from both sides on a land that was ripped to pieces and has never quite managed to pull itself together yet. More than 67 years have passed; 60 since Manto himself was laid to rest but the bloodstains of that massacre still haunt the generations on both sides of the divide: dates have changed; places have changed and so have names but the nature of man remains the same; the struggle against our own self continues.

written by Sa'adat Hasan Manto and directed by Deepti Girotra and Vinay Varma, which we are staging on 14th and 15th of feb 7:30 pm.

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