Paks a punch

Years back I had came across Ahmed Nadeem Qasimi’s The Old Banyan and other Stories. Brought up mostly on things written in English, Qasimi’s stories proved to be a window to Pakistan’s culture and locale. The stories, which later were published by Katha, portrayed the disappointments and gullibility, joys and sorrows of common men and women. An active member of the Progressive Writers Movement, Qasimi noticed the lives of his people with the practised eyes of a shrewd observer and found
them worth celebrating.

Benazir’s assassination, Zardari’s coming to power, 26/11 and most recently, the internal strife in Pakistan have brought the country back in news: a very favourable time for Daniyal Mueenuddin’s short story collection to be noticed by the literati and the media. Interestingly, Daniyal’s world is in no way different from Qasimi’s. But it is likely that many may not have heard of Qasimi because he wrote in Urdu.

The son of an American mother and a Pakistani father, Daniyal presently lives on a farm in Pakistan's southern Punjab, where he nurtures mango orchards and grows vegetables. His is a nuanced world where social status and expectations are understood without being stated, and where poverty and the desire to advance frame each critical choice. Daniyal's eight linked stories chronicle the struggles among the affluent and the destitute. The stories revolve
around the extended family of a wealthy landowner, Mr K K
Harouni, mostly taking place on farms in Pakistan and according to the writer, mostly based on personal experience. An ageing feudal landlord's household staff, the villagers who depend on his favour, and a network of relations near and far who have sought their fortune in the cities and abroad confront the merits and constraints
of their being, the dissolution of old ways and the shock
of change.

Of the eight, my favourites are ‘About a Burning Girl’ because of its sarcasm and humour and ‘Provide Provide’ for its exemplary characterisation of the protagonist Zainab, a poor girl who provides company to the lonesome family patriarch but is thrown out of the mansion on the latter’s death.