Click to see more Song 'Kaho Ek Baar Mujhe Tumse Pyaar' from Shabistan (1951). Manto paid a heartfelt tribute to his friend in his writings.
There are descriptions of their boisterous drinking sessions, Shyam’s unsuccessful attempt to flirt with actress Kuldip Kaur in a first-class suburban train compartment, an acknowledgment of a gift of money from Shyam, and hints of dalliances with Nigar Sultana and Ramola, as well as the woman Shyam eventually married, Mumtaz, also known as Taji.
Manto and Shyam remained in touch through sporadic letter writing. Shyam even visited Lahore along with comedian Om Prakash, where he met his old friend.
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After the initial euphoria of hugging each other and talking nineteen to the dozen had passed, Manto remembers,
"Shyam was in a strange mental state. He was intensely conscious of his presence in Lahore, the same Lahore whose streets were once witness to his numerous romances. This Lahore was now thousands of miles from Amritsar. And how far was his beloved Rawalpindi where he spent his boyhood? Lahore, Amritsar and Rawalpindi were all where they used to be, but those days were no longer there, nor those nights which Shyam had left behind. The undertaker of politics had buried them deep, only he knew where."
Manto was battling his own demons, and was a patient at a mental hospital in Lahore, when he heard of Shyam’s death in 1951.
Manto writes, "I distinctly remember that when I read about Shyam, I said to the inmate in the room, next to mine, ‘Do you know that a very dear friend of mine has died?"
"Who?" he asked.
"Shyam," I replied in a tearful voice.
"Here? In the lunatic asylum?"
"I did not answer his question. Suddenly, one after another, several images sprang to life in my fevered brain: Shyam smiling, Shyam laughing, Shyam screaming, Shyam full of life, utterly unaware of death and its terrors. So I said to myself that whatever I had read in the newspaper was untrue… even the newspaper I held in my hand was only a figment of my imagination."
Shyam’s wife was pregnant with their son, Shakhir, when he died. She migrated to Pakistan after his death. His daughter, Sahira, had a successful run as a television actor.
There is no record of whether Manto met them in Pakistan, but he ends his tribute with a dialogue with Shyam’s spirit:
"Dear Shyam, I left Bombay Talkies. Can’t Pandit Nehru leave Kashmir? Now isn’t that hiptullha?"
This article was originally published on Scroll.in and has been reproduced with permission.