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We are not in Pakistan THE book is a collection of 10 short stories inspired by human values and frailties. Some expose latent fears, mistrust and prejudice, while the others underscore and repose faith, nudging the conscious emergence of truth, belief and acceptance.
A peculiar medical condition ... a freak medical probability makes up for Naina. A woman is pregnant and has problems delivering for years. She refuses induction of labour, believing that once her baby is ready to come to the world, it would happen on its own. Her queer condition finds constant place in medical research journals. Whether she is able to let go of her fears and the past to enable the delivery makes for an absorbing read. The author interweaves past with the present in most of the stories, with the past having an indelible impact on "now" and conditions the world view of the characters. Some can overcome it and are cleansed, therein lies their redemption; but some others continue to struggle and go down with it. We are not in Pakistan is one such story that talks of a Pakistani grandma and her US-born granddaughter who can’t understand, and often mocks her grandma’s old-world notions. It , however, takes a chance disappearance of her grandmother for her to realise that she didn’t really hate her and how she longed to be with her. Then there’s Tania, wanting to break free of the bondage of marriage, in the vacuum of which she’s losing herself. On the "night of the leonids", she finds herself contemplating her life; wishing for living every moment like a leonid ... with passion, intensity and awareness ... "live like you’re on the path of a fireball". The revelation is accentuated with the thought that happiness doesn’t always come in a blue (jewellery) box. She drives off in her husband’s car to a future where she knows she can be herself. The Distance Between us is reaffirmation of a father-daughter relationship. Karanbir Singh, a Sikh professor in the US, strikes a marriage deal for two years for a green card. Many years later, a mail from a woman claiming to be his daughter has him unsettled. He allows her to come visiting him and soon the word father "takes root somewhere at the base of his spine". She can’t relate to most of him, but a common thread tugs at their heart. Racism, fear of losing it all and blood ties help forge a bond which won’t lose itself even as she boards a train to return home. When you have lost the little girl you created with the only woman you have ever loved, when you have failed your family and disappointed yourself, it takes someone like Ted to make you believe it is possible to create again. The View from the Mountain brings out the pain and guilt of a man; his loneliness as he lives through "all his days of sadness", believing he may have been able to save his wife and daughter from the inferno that reduced his house to a rubble. He’s lost the will to make life meaningful. It takes Ted to awaken him to life once more, but 9/11 changes that, and Ted, who feels "there’s no friendship, only interests". There’s a feeling of distrust and the equation alters, but this time, Wilson is steadfast, for he’s found his hold on life. Shauna Singh is a brilliant narrator who has the knack of getting under the skin of her characters as she runs her stories around people caught in regular circumstances. They are no heroes, nor are there extraordinary situations, but in their fight they emerge closest to being just that.
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The story Only a
Button is about the complex relationship of a woman with her
mother-in-law that borders on the trivial with the mother-in-law
calling her all through a party to look for a missing button. At the
time of the marriage of her daughter, the woman is forced to at least
make an attempt toward peaceful co-existence with her mother-in-law,
which, she knows would be only for the day of the marriage since it
was too hard to break free of misgivings harboured over such a long,
long time.