Daniyal Mueenuddi's “Nawabdin Electrician”

Daniyal Mueenuddin is a Pakistani man who formerly practiced as a lawyer at Debevoise & Plimpton, a New York law firm. He graduated magna cum laude from Dartmouth College and received his law degree from Yale. His mother, Barbara Thompson Davis, is a writer in New York. His father, the late Ghulam Mueenuddin, was Secretary of Pakistan's Establishment Department. Mueenuddin has been featured several times in The New Yorker, and his collection of short stories In Other Rooms, Other Worlds had led to unprecedented interest from 10 US publishing houses. He currently manages a farm in Khanpur, Pakistan.

Nawabdin Electrician is the story about a rural Pakistani electrician named Nawab. The father of twelve daughters, he is a man who takes his job seriously and is well-known for his “local genius for crude improvisation”. Yet, he takes advantage of his ‘good reputation’ – one that is actually based on stealing electricity – in order to attain what he desires, such as a new motorcycle from his employer. Riding home one night, a poor man asks for a ride into town. At first unsure, Nawab becomes convinced to help the stranger when the he says he is from Kashmor, and Nawab remembers that he had been treated like an honored superior by the poor people living there. His trustworthiness almost costs him his life, as the man ends up shooting Nawab in an attempt to steal his “bike, his toy, his freedom.” In the hospital, the attacker, on the verge of death, confesses that he is destitute and begs forgiveness. Nawab, however, refuses, and the reader is left to superficially conclude the Nawab is a hypocrite, as he fails to see that there is little difference between him and his enemy.

While some might see him as a swindler, I thought Nawab’s corruption was justifiable in light of the fact that has to support a family of fifteen and pay twelve dowries for his daughters. Any other man in the same situation might have already given up on life, “but not Nawabdin. The daughters acted as a spur to his genius, and he looked with satisfaction in the mirror each morning at the face of a warrior going out to do battle.” Mueenuddin therefore succeeds in making Nawab a sympathetic character, one who is favored over the common thief. Initially seen as weak, Nawab becomes a mercilessly strong individual in the eyes of the reader. Mueenuddin’s serious, straightforward tone utilizes minimal adjectives and metaphors that do not detract from his skill as a writer. Additionally, his descriptions of the landscape are an integral part of the story that give insight into life in Pakistan. The story becomes a transition between life based around nature and life in a technological civilization. Industrial developments are not the only advancements in the story; Nawab is additionally elevated to a superior status because of his motorcycle, a tool that “gave him weight, so that people began calling him Uncle and asking his opinion on world affairs”. In emphasizing this division of class in Pakistan based on material possessions, the author succeeds in creating a culturally authentic story.