Nawabdin Electrician is a short story written by Daniyal Mueenuddin. The story revolves around Nawabdin, an electrician who lives off an influential man and helps him slow down the revolutions of the meter.
The story starts with the introduction of Nawabdin, an electrician. Nawab is introduced as an electrician who cheats the electric companies by slowing down the meters and does this, especially for his patron, K.K. Harouni. He used to help K.K. Harouni an influential man having lots of fields. Nawab uses it to help him slow down the meter's revolutions so that his fields can be watered without paying much for the electricity.
He uses to treat the water pipes sometimes heating them, sometimes connecting the wires, sometimes circumventing switches, and so on. He had married the love of his youth early in life and was blessed with twelve daughters and a son. If not for the salary he received from Harouni his family would have starved to death. He was used to accompanying Harouni whenever he came from Lahore. One day he asks Harouni for a bike and receives Honda 70 as a gift for his illegal help. Nawab’s status after receiving the motorcycle increases. He is also able to visit his wife every night who was with her family in Firoza. He after getting the motorcycle used to visit his wife regularly with who he was still madly in love with. The condition of the house where Nawab’s family was is also described in detail. The house was in poor condition but there was something warm at the same time about the house.
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The house had a dark roof, running water, with a black and white television but was decorated with knitted clothing. One day Nawab arrives at Firoza and gives his wife five kilos of brown sugar which he got for repairing the sugarcane press. Nawab and his family enjoyed their breakfast the next day. The children and Nawab ate bread with the syrup of brown sugar happily. On his way back to work Nawab encounters a man who asks him for a lift. Nawab after inquiring about the man’s whereabouts agrees to give him a lift but as the date would have it the man to whom Nawab gives the lift is, in fact, a thief. The thief after a while shouts to stop the motorcycle and puts a gun on Nawab’s head.
He tells Nawab to get off the motorcycle. Nawab begs him not to take his means of bread insisting that he has thirteen children. Nawab tries to fight off the thief in order to protect his bike but ends up getting shot. The thief runs after seeing Nawab in a critical condition. Two villagers come to the scene and they recognize the injuries of Nawab who was writhing in pain. They help him get to the hospital. They also get a hold of the thief’s gun and fire it into the tree where the thief was supposedly hiding. The robber and Nawab both are taken to the same hospital where the doctor declares that Nawab is fine whereas the thief is in a critical condition. The thief after realizing his mistakes begs Nawab to forgive him.
The thief tries to justify himself by describing his living conditions. He tells Nawab that he was brought up with kicks and slaps and has a blind old mother waiting for him in the slums outside Multan with no money, no land, and no house. Nawab refuses to accept his apology and the thief dies while trying to get his apology accepted. Nawab and the pharmacist do nothing but watching the man die. Nawab was saved, even one bullet hit him.