In the title story of Do You Suppose It’s the East Wind?, Altaf Fatima portrays the pain felt by a Muslim who is forced to separate from her Hindu friend during Partition. Ghulam Abbas describes how the ‘Lure of Music’ seduces a father to abandon the confines of a middle-class existence and unwittingly embrace the culture of the kotha. Saadat Hasan Manto’s ‘For Freedom’s Sake’ is the story of the young Congress ‘dictator’ Ghulam Ali who suppresses his sexual desires for the cause of Independence, only to realize the folly of such a sacrifice. Abul Fazl Siddiqi narrates the tale of the poor, lovely Sundariya who wins a five-yearly mango competition with her new ‘Gulab Khas’ and faces the wrath of her aristocratic competitors. And in ‘Sunlight’, Abdullah Hussein captures the joy of the exile returning home after a long hiatus.

Retaining the flavour of the original, Muhammad Umar Memon’s translations from the Urdu offer sharply observed snapshots of life in the subcontinent and celebrate the secular heritage of the language.

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