topics: |  fiction | south-asia | pakistan

set in lahore, the story revolves around the affair between Ozi's wife
Mumtaz, and his best friend Dara.  The city is a powerful presence, with
dark morals and turmoil - erstwhile civil service officers living off their
ill-gotten wealth, while newfangled airconditioned cabs are driving out the
rickshaws.  Looming in the background, and often commented upon by the
protagonists are the twin nuclear blasts by India and then Pakistan
(1994?); there is no posturing, just how common people rejoice at
pakistan's bomb.

Simple in style, the story is very effective.  I found particularly
revealing the love of Mumtaz for this down and out man - why is this so
common?

Are we like moths seeking a candle to immolate ourselves on?

Different pace of life in the west:
[after first arriving in NYC]
	getting into a massive cab that didn't have a moment to waste 155

The story of the moth has a long association in Islamic poetry.
Jadunath Sarkar writes:
	According to the conventions of Persian poetry the type of the
	perfect lover is the moth which consumes itself in the flame of a
	lamp without uttering a groan. 
		- Studies in Mughal India (1919)

Mumtaz has married into money; her father-in-law is introduced early in the
book as "the frequently investigated but as yet unincarcerated Federal
Secretary (Retired) Khurram Shah."

link:  review by amitava kumar in http://www.hindu.com/fline/fl1715/17150730.htm The Hindu