A generation after Premchand, the story writers that came to the forefront, among them Krishan Chandar, Rajinder Singh Bedi, Ismat Chugtai and Saadat Hasan Manto were most outstanding. Manto was a bold and unmitigated realist of his times. The sweep of his variegated imagination, his economy of narration and style and his masterly technique bespoke of elegance. He had a deep insight into human nature and a surprisingly keen understanding of human actions. Manto has, with dispassionate calm studied the tragedies and horrors of life, so horrendous that they could have even turned stone into water. Even so, he did not despair of the goodness of man, of his humanity and life-giving powers. He has concretized the experiences and observations of life in his beautiful, well groomed and powerful stories which leave one amazed. Urdu short story rightly feels proud of its enrichment and the pride of place in the field of fiction because of Manto's stories.
Varis Alvi (b. 1928) studied Urdu, Persian and English Literature at Gujarat College, Ahmedabad. Retired as a Professor of English literature from St. Xaviers College, Ahmedabad, he has written more than fifteen books on literary criticism in Urdu. His exhaustive works on Manto and Rajinder Singh Bedi are considered as landmarks in the creative criticism of Urdu fiction.
Jai Ratan (b. 1917) was born in Ludhiana and now lives in Delhi. Apart from writings of his own, he has translated extensively from Hindi, Urdu and Punjabi into English. He has over four dozen translations to his credit. He is the recipient of the 'Divagish' Award (1991) and Sahitya Akademi Prize for Translation (English) (1992). Along with P. Lal he is a founder member of Writers Workshop, Calcutta.
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