Feudal milieu RAZA NAEEM Daniyal Mueenuddin breaks into hitherto uncharted area in Pakistani English writing.

THE late Eqbal Ahmad once wrote that feudalism had become the whipping boy of Pakistan’s intelligentsia, who neither understand feudalism’s origins nor analyse its pernicious hold on the country despite five decades of independence.

Measure that up against the debut collection of short stories released by the Pakistani writer Daniyal Mueenuddin, In Other Rooms, Other Wonders, and it becomes clear that to write about a world that is slowly dying in some aspects and being constantly reinvigorated in others one needs more than just a clever pen. Being an insider, Mueenuddin has the advantage of chronicling first-hand stories of despair from Pakistan’s feudal world, ensuring that he is not just moralising from a drawing room.

The eight stories that make up this collection are set in the heartland of one of Pakistan’s most backward and conservative regions, a region of shocking poverty and illiteracy in the heart of Parha Likha Punjab (“Well-Educated Punjab”, a scheme started by Punjab’s former Chief Minister Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi), namely the Seraiki belt, including the city of Multan and the town of Muzzafargarh. Pakistan’s Prime Minister Yusouf Raza Gilani and Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi are from Seraiki.... [he means Seraiki belt?~~~t]