Who tells the greatest story god or manto? dozakhnama: conversations in hell is an extraordinary novel, a biography of manto and ghalib and a history of indian culture rolled into one. Exhumed from dust, manto’s unpublished novel surfaces in lucknow. Is it real or is it a fake? in this dastan, manto and ghalib converse, entwining their lives in shared dreams. The result is an intellectual journey that takes us into the people and events that shape us as a culture. As one writer describes it, i discovered rabisankar bal like a torch in the darkness of the history of this subcontinent. This is the real story of two centuries of our own country. Rabisankar bal’s audacious novel, told by reflections in a mirror and forged in the fires of hell, is both an oral tale and a shield against oblivion. An echo of distant screams. Inscribed by the devil’s quill, dozakhnama is an outstanding performance of subterranean memory.