Nawabdin Electrician is a short story written by Daniyal Mueenuddin.
Mueenuddin is considered to be one of the most prominent Pakistani American
authors who got fame with his collection of short stories In Other Rooms
Other Wonders. Nawabdin Electrician is a short story that presents
Pakistani culture and subtly talks about the corruption in society and how the
people react to a different class of people differently.
Nawabdin is the name of the electrician in a small village of Multan and knows a technique of cheating the electric company by slowing down the revolutions of its meters. He gets appreciation for this act and the people of his village call him their savior. It is very common in Pakistani society where people try to cheat organizations just for their benefit.
People of three different classes have been shown in the story. K. K. Harooni, the landowner, who is a wealthy man and owns a big area of fertile land, belongs to an upper-class family. The next is Nawabdin, who belongs to a lower-middle-class family and works for Mr. Harooni and the last is the impoverished thief who is living hand to mouth that forces him to snatch and rob.
When Nawabdin begs his boss Mr. Harooni for a motorcycle, he grants
him money to buy it. The attitude of Mr. Harooni shows that he knows how people
exaggerate their sufferings to get sympathy. In Pakistan, people are honored
according to their financial stature.
Mueenuddin expresses that the motorcycle increases Nawabdin's social
status in his area. He puts on some weight and now he is getting more respect
and being called uncle. After earning a motorcycle he has come to the list of
honorable citizens of his area. Now people take his suggestions in their
matters and his opinions on world affairs, about which he knows nothing, are
highly been praised. This shows how just a little financial stability upgrades
one's importance in Pakistani culture.
Nawabdin has thirteen children and this large number of children is
common in rural areas of Pakistan. He has just one son and twelve burdens
because parents have to pay dowry at their weddings and twelve daughters mean
twelve times dowry. That is the force that leads Nawabdin to do meter
corruption and drives him to plead for a motorcycle. He is hard-working like
most Pakistani men, who earn money to feed their families and are responsible
for every need. The raw sugar feast also depicts the Pakistani culture where
people take raw sugar after dinner especially in winter. Nwabdin’s family feels
pleased having this feast.
The thief in the play belongs to a lower class and is a drunken
man. When he attacks Nawabdin few people come to escape him, they also attack
the thief. As a result, Nawabdin and the thief both get injured. In the
hospital, no sympathy is shown to the thief, because he is supposed to be evil,
a sinister and that is why no medical treatment is given to him. Even the
doctor, the savior, ignores him because he has committed a crime and as a consequence,
the poor thief dies. Here we see how in Pakistan people are discriminated
against due to their social status.
The village, the cycles, the number of children, the patriarchal
structure, raw sugar feast, and the bonding of the family all are the true
depiction of Pakistani culture and society and present the economic and social
disparities of middle and lower-middle-class Pakistanis.
This article is written by Tabassum Shahzad, one of the contributors at the SOL Community.
