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It is interesting that the title In Other Rooms, Other Wonders which confers on Daniyal Mueenuddin's eight short stories a generic identity is based on the metaphor of a house enclosing different spaces, each with its own character and charm. Although it is one of his stories that generously lends its name to the title, the idea and imagery communicated by it is more than apt to depict the platitudes of geographical and cultural landscapes that constitute Pakistan and its people, as represented in these tales. Looked at this way, the collection thus conveys a unique sense of nationalism, perhaps not consciously designed by the author.
Whether or not intentional, the arrangement of the independent (not completely autonomous) stories forms an evolving narrative. It follows a loose chronology and an under emphasised lineage that connects characters on the basis of familial and domestic ties, very much in keeping with the feudal order that contextualises many of the stories. At the vertex is the aged, affluent patriarch K.K. Harouni. French wine flowing through plush pool parties organised by flamboyant masters in turn served varyingly by a hierarchy of helpers, vestiges of a “dying world”, is a recurrent site, emblematic of the Harouni worldview. The disintegration of feudalism is most stately exemplified in Provide, Provide wherein Harouni decides to charter his ancestral estate in blocks as a result of his growing interest in industries and in doing so, simultaneously barters his bonds with the entire landlord-farmer relationship within the traditional agrarian system.
Harouni’s (extended) family and retinue of servants and employees feature as the principal players in Mueeniddin’s artistic ensemble. The overall trajectory can be defined in terms of a progression from the farmlands and factories in the rural Punjabi milieu of Multan to the sensibility and occupations of the much westernised urbane Islamabad and Karachi socialites. Concomitantly one perceives the dynamics of power struggles against social divides within an intensely class conscious society, as well as ruptures and disconnects between individuals caused by cultural (dis)locations.
One of the prominent aspects of the towering praise that Daniyal Mueenuddin’s literary debut has received is Nadeem Aslam’s compliment about how Under (the author’s) gaze, Pakistan is lit up..” , a sentiment shared by both contemporary Pakistani authors as well as people of other nationalities. In some ways this book seems to have done for Pakistan what Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s One Hundred Years Of Solitude which unravelled Latin America to a wide readership in an unprecedented way. Writers of and from Pakistan in the present era seem to be an avant-garde movement in literature with writers such as Mohsin Hamid, Mohammed Hanif and Nadeem Aslam among others garnering worldwide recognition.
Mueenuddin’s work unlike The Reluctant Fundamentalist or The Wasted Vigil may not be overtly political in promoting a particular ideology, is nevertheless open to political interpretation. Precisely because of its apolitical approach in highlighting the social fabric of contemporary Pakistan and not judging the actions of his characters, the stories are analysed differently according to the context. So it allows for one reviewer to extrapolate that Pakistan is a land where corruption and chicanery hold sway while another could gauge the multiple modes of employer employee relations in the same story. For the Indian reader the book on many occasions reflects, barring a few specificities, scenes and characters easily identifiable with their counterparts here. This gives new meaning to the idea of “looking glass borders”, an idea explored by Amitav Ghosh almost two decades ago in The Shadow Lines.
The conflict central to possibly all the stories, is one which emerges when the protagonist is catapulted into a new, or at least a prospect of a different, social paradigm. In each scenario Mueenuddin captures this phenomenon in distinct ways. On the one hand, while Nawabdin, (in Nawabdin Electrician) fights nothing less than a heroic battle to reflect in the "glory of saving" his motorcycle, the symbol of his elevation to a higher stature, something that "gave him weight”, on the other, Husna (from the title story) despite her ancestry (which can be traced back to the erstwhile landed aristocracy) is at any cost unable to secure for herself the kind of pride and privileges the Pakistani upper class is guaranteed by wealth and sophistication. For Rezak (in A Spoiled Man) a single turn of events dethrones him from his elevated station and the acquired ‘spoils’ that went with it, his punishment for having “dared to reach so high”.
Most of the narratives ultimately yield the ineffectiveness and precariousness of transformation, both within and around oneself. The idea is probably best contemplated in Lily where the tilted character tries to redeem herself by believing that marriage would allow her “fundamentally to change herself” from leading an unfulfilling, shallow life, only to experience, soon after, “a little crack opened up as if in the perimeter walls of the compound at Jalpana, through which a poisonous scent, like very strong attar, overpowering, overripe, musky, seeped into their life together — the pull of her old life, of other lives.”. In a moment of enlightenment in the end, she realises that “you take chances and then nothing really changes”, echoing an existentialist tone.
In Our Lady Of Paris, Sohail and Helen’s love story meets an ambiguous and poignant deadlock amidst the romantic aura of Paris. Their relationship cannot translate into a “solid thing” since Helen with her determination and straightforwardness intrinsic, the reader is expected to believe, to the American ideology, cannot reconcile to “putting enough value on decorative, superficial things” as summed up by Rafia (Sohail’s mother) who has herself navigated her life in this manner and considers it a pre requisite for survival in Pakistan.
Sonya, “the American wife” Sohail Harouni eventually marries in this regard, serves as Helen’s nemesis as she spends her life playing hostess in chic Halloween parties and convincing people and herself about the richness of her life. Characters such as Saleema (in Saleema) and Husna who use their sexuality as an instrument for social escalation or Lily who “subsumes” herself into Murad’s outlook to find more meaning in her life consequently confront the illusionary and temporary nature of these changes when they end by reverting back to their previous lives or as in the case of Saleema in complete destitution. Mueenuddin largely employs women to presumably demonstrate the circularity of life and in doing so runs the risk of coming across as portraying a gender bias. There is always a deep sense of empathy that the author shares with the dilemmas and joys of each of his characters.
Even though most of the stories culminate on a sombre, haunting note, each showcases a detailed and impressionistic account individuals and their everyday lives and struggles in beautiful, evocative prose. Mueenuddin follows a classical style of narration. Objective, detached and generally expressed in the third person’s perspective (with the exception of About A Burning Girl) with measured eloquence. His style belongs to the Charles Dickens school of writing especially when it comes to illustrating the nuances of a character or his activities through striking allusions and metaphors, the best examples of which can be found in Nawabdin Electrician and About A Burning Girl.
Unlike Dickens, Mueenuddin does not engage in social commentary in a head on fashion. The author’s prowess in describing episodes and occurrences which resonate with warmth and tenderness is admirable. Incidents like shadows dancing in the distant night in Lily or a simple event involving a treat of brown sugar to the family in Nawabdin Electrician form a lasting memory. Daniyal Mueenuddin has the rare and remarkable ability to draw the reader into the lives of his players and the world that unfold with them.
In Other Rooms, Other Wonders is published by Random House (2009, Pages: 247 Price Rs 395)
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A version of this was published in the Businessworld Issue dated 24 Feb - 02 Mar 2009.
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