Saturday 14 September 2013

Nigaahien!

The most interesting thing i find in Manto's short story is "Nigaahien", which is used at different times in the story in the meaning of just looking casually or "staring". At the first instance when Zaheer shows the picture of Bismillah as his wife, Saeed puts it right back on the table considering it "Mayoob" or inappropriate to look closely but picks it up again for another look. Manto uses different terms for it at different times for examples, "Saeed ne nigaahien dusri taraf phair lien", "Saeed ne us ki aankhon ke andhar kayi baar dubkiyaan lagayin" and at the end of the story when saeed is alone with Bismillah, Manto says, "saeed ne darte darte ek do martaba toh lene wali nigaahon se dekha". Although there is no act of violence in the story as opposed to "khol do", different mentions of staring and gazing is quite interesting. Saeed himself considers his it inappropriate yet he cannot help it. I think Manto here is criticizing the whole society as this is a common practice not limited to a specific person. Saeed's staring here represents the whole society.

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