In Other Rooms, Other Wonders

Author: Daniyal Mueenuddin

Originally I had intended to read a book by Orhan Pamuk, until my sister pointed out that Turkey is a European country (silly me, the term Asia Minor may have misled me). So we spent an evening at MPH looking for books from the South Asian subcontinent to make up the fifth entry for this Challenge. Books by Chinese and Indian authors I have already read, so this piece of work from Pakistan was something of a discovery.

This book is actually an anthology of 8 tales, interlinked in that they all revolve around the being and belongings of K.K. Harouni, an ancestral landowner from Punjab. However, he is the main character in only one story (the titular In Other Rooms, Other Wonders), where he falls for a servant girl and makes her his mistress. In other stories, he is part of the background - the benevolent employer of an army of servants, the rich uncle of a Western-educated nephew whose name is dropped into the conversation.

Most of the stories are about clandestine relationships - there were a couple that seemed to have the same plot, of a lowly woman having an affair with someone above her station, hoping it would give her a better life but, sadly, dismissed at the end. The rich don't seem to have it any better - the glitz and decadence doing little to give them true everlasting happiness. If there was any moral sermonising to be attached to these stories, the message would be to lead a chaste and honourable life - affairs will get you nowhere. The only story where the protagonist emerged somewhat victorious is Nawabdin Electrician - but then he only ever cheated the utilities company.