Toba Tek Singh (short story)
Overview
 
"Toba Tek Singh" is a short story
Short story
A short story is a work of fiction that is usually written in prose, often in narrative format. This format tends to be more pointed than longer works of fiction, such as novellas and novels. Short story definitions based on length differ somewhat, even among professional writers, in part because...

 written by Saadat Hasan Manto
Saadat Hasan Manto
Saadat Hassan Manto was a short story writer of the Urdu language. He is best known for his short stories, 'Bu' , 'Khol Do' , 'Thanda Gosht' , and his magnum opus, 'Toba Tek Singh'....

 and published in 1955
1955 in literature
The year 1955 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*28 May - Philip Larkin makes a train journey from Hull to London which inspires his poem The Whitsun Weddings....

. It follows inmates in a Lahore
Lahore
Lahore is the capital of the Pakistani province of Punjab and the second largest city in the country. With a rich and fabulous history dating back to over a thousand years ago, Lahore is no doubt Pakistan's cultural capital. One of the most densely populated cities in the world, Lahore remains a...

 asylum some of who are to be transferred to India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

 following the 1947 Partition
Partition of India
The Partition of India was the partition of British India on the basis of religious demographics that led to the creation of the sovereign states of the Dominion of Pakistan and the Union of India on 14 and 15...

. The story is a "powerful satire" on the relationship between India and Pakistan. A film based on a play adaptation was made in 2005.
The story is set two or three years after the 1947 Partition, when the governments of India and Pakistan decided to exchange their Muslim, Sikh and Hindu lunatics, and revolves around Bishan Singh, a Sikh inmate of an asylum in Lahore
Lahore
Lahore is the capital of the Pakistani province of Punjab and the second largest city in the country. With a rich and fabulous history dating back to over a thousand years ago, Lahore is no doubt Pakistan's cultural capital. One of the most densely populated cities in the world, Lahore remains a...

, who is from the town of Toba Tek Singh
Toba Tek Singh
Toba Tek Singh District is a district in the Punjab province of Pakistan. It is located between 30°33' to 31°2' Degree north latitudes and 72°08' to 72°48' Degree longitudes.-Origins of Name:...

.
Quotations

"There's naught, no doubt, so much the spirit calms as rum and true religion." -- Lord Byron

"The chief fuddling they make in the island is Rumbullion, alias Kill-Divil, and this is made of sugar canes distilled, a hot, hellish, and terrible liquor". -- 17th Century account

"Fifteen men on the dead man's chest-Yo-ho-ho, and a bottle of rum!" -- Robert Louis Stevenson, Treasure Island

"Don't talk to me about naval tradition. It's nothing but rum, sodomy, and the lash." -- Attributed to, and denied by, Winston Churchill

"Where I go, I hope there's rum" - Jimmy Buffett

"But why's the rum gone?" - Johnny Depp as "Captain Jack Sparrow", The Pirates of the Carribean: The Curse of the Black Pearl

"Hide the rum." - Johnny Depp as "Captain Jack Sparrow", The Pirates of the Carribean: Dead Man's Chest

"I prefer rum. Rum is good." - Captain Jack Sparrow, Pirates of the Caribbean:At World's End

 
x
OK