Manto, God, Premchand and Some Other Storytellers

One of the best known things about Saadat Hasan Manto (1912–1955) is the epitaph he composed for himself on 18 August 1954, exactly five months before he died at the age of forty-two on 18 January 1955. It ran (in Urdu, of course): ‘ Here lies Saadat Hasan Manto. With him lie buried all the arts and mysteries of short story writing. Under tons of earth he lies, wondering if he is a greater short story writer than God.