No drawing room conversation these days is complete without the question, how long will it be before Pakistan capitulates to the Taliban? Are its nuclear weapons in safe hands? Are its armed forces motivated enough to take on the bigoted student-soldiers? This is also the first time perhaps that people have become aware of the patchwork that is Pakistan: its ruling elite and landed aristocracy, the large middle class who want to improve their lives, the powerless poor and the growing tribe of IDPs (internally displaced persons) in the refugee camps that have sprung up at an alarming rate in the last few weeks.
There has also been a spate of books, and also films, on contemporary Pakistan in the recent past. Young Pakistanis seem to have turned to pen and paper with a vengeance. The state of the country, a people trying to hold themselves together, is fertile ground for writers. Almost all such books have been lapped up by readers in India—such is the appetite to know about the neighbour that is so close yet so far. But few can match In Other Rooms, Other Wonders in richness of prose, astuteness of observation and imagery. The story of a whole society has been told in a crisp tone yet in a fulfilling way in less than 250 pages.
Daniyal Mueenuddin’s genius lies in that he can traverse all the worlds of Pakistan with equal comfort and familiarity. He is equally at ease writing about servants and farm hands as he is about the lives of businessmen and high-society women. Poor and powerful—nobody is a stranger to Mueenuddin. The different languages they speak complete with double and triple entendre, their hurt and aspirations are all known to him and the attention to detail is immaculate. Mueenuddin, we are told, was brought up in Lahore and Elroy, Wisconsin and now lives on a farm in Punjab. It is clear where he has got the all-round wisdom from.
The canvas of his eight short stories is stupendous. It moves from rural Pakistan to Karachi and even Paris seamlessly. There is not a single jarring note in the whole book. The characters all are in one way or the other linked to KK Harouni, a landlord of some proportions. The book starts with Nawabdin, the electrician who fixes water pumps on Harouni’s farm and is waylaid at night by a robber for his motorcycle, but survives. Saleema works in the Harouni household and falls for his ageing butler. She ends up begging on the streets not very far from the Harouni house. And there is Husna, whose family has fallen on bad times, but she hopes to advance her way up by sleeping with the dying Harouni.
Jajlani, who is entrusted to manage Harouni’s estate, fleeces his master all the time and becomes a powerful man in his own right. Then there are at the other end of the spectrum the extremely sophisticated Rafia Harouni, equally at ease in Karachi and Paris, and Lily who falls and then flies out of love. The stories touch upon every fibre of Pakistani society.
Like India, Pakistan too offers a smorgasbord of hope and triumph, defeat and dejection, love and lust, brute power in the hands of few and the powerless multitude. Mueenuddin does justice with each and every emotion. It is a compelling story told by an astute observer with all the feelings and passion of an insider.
The lives recounted by Mueenuddin throw some interesting light on the Pakistan society. There is a huge class of landowners. They have held their estates for generations and still live out the feudal lifestyle invented and perfected by their ancestors. Their houses are huge and the train of their servants (khidmatgars) long. Many landowners have morphed into businessmen and industrialists. Several of them have become political leaders and run cities and provinces as political leaders. Thus, the powerful men of Pakistan all come from the same small set of families.
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There is promiscuity amongst the lower classes as well as the upper classes. Morals in Pakistan, like anywhere else in the world, are there only for the unfortunate middle classes. Sleeping around, either for a favour or just out of pure lust, is commonplace at either end of the social spectrum. And there is corruption right through. Of course, we are no strangers to it. Yet, corruption in Pakistan appears more pervasive.
Still, one facet of Pakistan remains untouched in the book—the Pakistani military elite. They are a powerful force within the country. Their lives have changed little from the days of the Raj. Nobody can ride roughshod over them, nobody can ignore them. Perhaps some description of army life would have made the picture complete. Still, Mueenuddin’s work is first rate. It will outlive all the turbulence going on in Paksitan.
IN OTHER ROOMS, OTHER WONDERS
Daniyal Mueenuddin
Random House
Pages 248
Price Rs 395