Babu Gopinath

(Penguin Petit)

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Meet Babu Gopinath: world’s number one gullible fool, a home-wrecker known for wrecking his own home, and a recent immigrant to Bombay. He’s brought along with him a Kashmiri ‘kabutri’—a weak-looking young woman—Zeenat Begum, who is as uninterested as she is unambitious. While this kind introduction was given by his friend Abdur Rahim Sando, Manto soon realized that not everything was actually as it seemed.

We handle things in our lives based on our past experiences and our assumptions about how things will work out, but it’s almost like the laws of reason and the world never seem to apply to Manto’s characters. As Manto gets to know Babu Gopinath and his world a little better, he takes us along this journey of discovery, to reach a destination neither of us are prepared for.

It is generally the women in Manto’s stories who are enchanting and intriguing, but Manto’s Babu Gopinath is equally, if not more, fascinating. Read on.