In Other Rooms, Other Wonders (2009) is a series of eight linked short stories set
in Pakistan.
Nawabdin, Electrician, the first story, tells of
Nawab who works for K.K. Harouni on his farm property at Dunyapur near Multan.
K.K. Hourani, aged in his 70s, lives in a mansion in Lahore and only visits the
farm once a year, leaving it in the hands of a manager. Nawab and his wife of
16 years has “all daughters … a complete set of twelve girls, ranging from
infant to age eleven, and then one odd piece” (a son). One day a robber, with a
knife, threatens him.
The
second story, Saleema, is about a 24
years old woman married to Hassan, a cook. She leaves Hassan for Rafik, a
servant working in K.K. Harouni’s Lahore home. Their newborn son is left to beg
on the streets after their death. In
Other Rooms, Other Wonders is about Husna seeking wealth in the Lahore home
of K.K. Hourani. She aims to do this by being Hourani’s mistress. When the aged
K.K. Harouni dies, his family lays off the staff and sells the mansion.
Provide, Provide is of Chaudrey Nabi Baksh
Jaglani who manages K.K. Harouni’s Dunyapur property. He had “lived an
opportunistic life, seizing power wherever he saw it available and unguarded.” Although
he has a wife and two sons, he secretly marries his driver’s sister, Zainab.
They adopt a two year old girl, Saba, but Jaglani is dying of cancer.
About a Burning Girl is a tragic tale – written
in first person by a session judge in the Lahore High Court. He has a case in
which a man’s wife is found dead beside the bed with burns to 90% of her body.
Her husband claims that she suicide by self-immolation.
Our Lady of Paris – my favourite story in
the collection – tells of Sohail Harouni, the cousin of K.K. Harouni, and an
American woman, Helen. They met at university in America, and had been dating
for two years when Sohail finishes his studies and returns to Pakistan while
Helen completes her senior years. During term break they holiday in Paris. Also
in Paris are Sohail’s parents. Lily is
the story of Leila, called Lily by her friends, which includes Sohail Harouni. Not
yet thirty, and living a life of alcoholic and drug-filled parties, she meets
Murad Talwan who wants to settle down on a farm. A Spoiled Man is about Rezak who works as a gardener on Sohail
Harouni’s estate. Sohail is now married to an American woman, Sonya.
At
the heart of the eight linked stories is the Harouni family of landowners, and
their servants and business connections. The novel explores themes of love and expectations,
conformity and non-conformity, hard work and hard socializing, government
service, business dealings, and socialite excesses. Although fictitious the
stories bring to light an interesting spotlight on society from different
perspectives.
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