Shyam K. Sriram is a doctoral student in political science at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He has written for PopMatters since 2008, and has also contributed to The Aerogram, The eJournal of Public Affairs, The Asian Journal of Comparative Politics, South Asian Diaspora, and other publications. He considers meeting Gene Wilder in 2010 to be one of the highlights of his life. He can be reached at [email protected] .
Manto was no Charles Bukowski with a tendency to excoriate the perils of the female flesh, nor Alifa Rifaat, who wrote frankly about female desire and lust; he created his own world where women were not victims.