"Nawabdin Electrician" by Daniyal Mueenuddin

When I looked at the short story, it didn't look very intriguing. At first, I thought it would be boring because I'm not at all into stories about "modern" Middle-East, or very, very descriptive stories. At the beginning, I did think it would be boring with all the description and random facts; although I knew they were probably important. While I reading this, I was wondering when something interesting happened and it did! After Nawab got shot, I was intrigued so I read a bit more carefully until the end then I went back to read the beginning more carefully and I picked up a few odd and ironic bits throughout the story and more characterization.

At the beginning it is established that Nawab is the protagonist, however he is far from being the hero. First of all, he cheats people by slowing down electric meters. Also, he tricks his landowner into buying him a new motorcycle because of his "gray" hairs and his "weak body". He also gets the landowner to buy some of the gasoline too. Before Nawab is shot he pleads with the thief to let him go: "I beg you, I've got little girls, thirteen children. I promise, thirteen." Later, the reader sees Nawab was pretending and doesn't care as much about the girls as he does the motorcycle. At the end of the story, he chooses not to forgive the thief who had shot him: "Never. I won't forgive you. You had your life, I had mine. At every step of the road I went the right way and you the wrong," The ironic thing about this is Nawab isn't much better than the thief (ex. he cheats people, he tricks his landowner into giving him the motorcycle, he cares more about the motorcycle)

Overall this book was very well written. I actually enjoyed this story much. I enjoyed going back and re-reading it and picking up parts I didn't see before and weaving and connecting them to the other parts in the story. It was a pleasant surprise.