Cole Preston
Professor Susan McGrade
English
25 October, 2014

Just Two Point Of Views In Other Rooms, Other Wonders written by Daniyal Mueenuddin, is a book that consists of multiple accounts of Pakistani families, people struggling to make ends meet, or to rise up in the social hierarchy that exists in their area. This book is the author, Daniyal Mueenuddin’s, point of view on Pakistani life and culture. The book uses descriptive details to show the emotions, actions, and thoughts of the characters as they progress through their story. What stood out to me, and probably most other readers, the most was that none of the stories had a fairytale ending. Each story in In Other Rooms, Other Wonders ended with struggle, hardship, or even death. Throughout the whole book I expected one of the stories to have a good ending, describing how to survive and live a happy and fulfilling life, but that story never came. Having little to no experiences with Pakistani life, my opinion has changed greatly from my perception of how life is in Pakistan. In In Other Rooms, Other Wonders, each story contained at least one of these three aspects of life, which here in America would be taken for granted, led into the cause of their struggle; work, love and family, and power. Here in America, some do struggle to find work or to make ends meet, but after reading In Other Rooms, Other Wonders, my opinion has been changed. According to Daniyal Mueenuddin, Pakistani life in the work force is much more complicated and unsecure. Multiple stories in the book show the struggle of making ends meet and getting by. One of many examples in In Other Rooms, Other Wonders is the short story of Nawabdin Electrician. In this short story, a man named Nawabdin has a large family that consists of his wife and thirteen children that he loved very dearly. He is left with no other option but to work his electrician job and to pick up as many others as possible. He also had a natural ability to cheat at his electrician job making it easier for him. At first, my opinion on Pakistani work life is remotely close to how it is in America. Some families have to work multiple jobs and I’m sure there’s plenty of accounts where an employee lies or cheats to make things a little easier for them. Although the next short story, may be relatable, but much less than the first story of Nawabdin the electrician. In this short story, Saleema, a woman named Saleema is married to a drug addict and needs to find a job to take care of herself since her husband is spending all of his money on drugs. She eventually finds a job as a housemaid for the wealthy Mr. Harouni. While working for Mr. Harouni, she sleeps with the cook of the household to rise up and gain respect multiple times and is eventually neglected by him. Once neglected she grew closer to Mr. Harouni’s driver, Rafik, an elderly married man. After some time, Saleema and Rafik begin to fall in love and eventually have sexual relations, both being married to someone else. Later, Saleema ends up impregnated by Rafik. Rafik appeared to be very helpful ad fatherly until he is relocated for work and tells Saleema that he cannot help her anymore. Mueenuddin then writes “And did Rafik say anything to the mistress about me? ‘Nothing Hasan said cruelly’.” (59). This story warped my opinion of the work like in Pakistan from, “hard work, and respect for your spouse” to how I would describe Pakistani life as “use sex so co-workers don’t dislike you and no respect for your husband or wife.” Another aspect of life that is emphasized and gave me a new outlook of, was love and family. In the book, Daniyal Mueenuddin uses different short stories to give examples of the different types of love and families in Pakistan. One of the clearest points was that families in Pakistan are all aware of, and accept, the social hierarchy which they live in. This hierarchy controls and instigates most actions taken in the majority of the stories. An example