Haroon K Ullah’s “The Bargain from the Bazaar” narrates a fascinating story of a Pakistani family set against the current history and politics of Pakistan. In doing so, Haroon takes his readers through a journey into the bustling, oldest market of the Subcontinent, Anarkali Bazaar, Lahore where the Reza family resides.
Reza family is a first generation of migrants from the Kashmir Valley to the city of Lahore during partition. Unsure of the fate that would be their ancestral land, Reza family quickly settled into this historic city in the 1950’s. That is also when internal transformations were taking place within Pakistan, a new nation on shaky footholds, grasping to become a stable state. Through the family’s story Haroon K Ullah has attempted to tackle a set of typical Pakistani concerns today: lawlessness, terrorism, radicalisation, sectarianism, economic instability, maintaining middle class status, gaining education, America’s war on terror etc.
Essential to the entire book is the emphasis that Haroon has given to the middle class in Pakistan who in the plethora of existing literature on the country has not been given a due voice or visibility. He states at the outset that the work is to portray “the fascinating but unseen struggles of the ordinary middle class families in Pakistan”. The Rezas are one of those families. The patriarch of the family Awais is a veteran of the 1971 Bangladesh War, turned trader. Shez, the matriarch/mother, is a nurse since that war. She is dour and highly intuitive, preferring to remain in the background. Their three sons are Salman, Daniyal and Kamran. Salman is a school dropout, an opium addict who helps out his father with his business. While, Daniyal attends a madrassa where he is being radicalised and trained to become a terrorist. The youngest, Kamran is studying on a scholarship to become a lawyer. It is through Daniyal and Kamran that Haroon portrays the dichotomy of Pakistani society at present, the struggle between the radical and the liberal.
As the story unfolds, it becomes clear that this is not an ordinary tale of middle class aspirations or strife of mundane life. In Haroon’s own words, “the kind of story investigative journalists fight over”. But Haroon himself is not a journalist. He is a senior Pakistani-American Diplomat with a deep understanding of South Asia, especially Pakistan. He states that the book is a result of eight years of extensive field research in South Asia and his relationship with a Pakistani family. He has also conducted several face to face interviews with Taliban commanders to shape this book. However, the combination of journalism, anthropology, politics and storytelling leaves the readers wondering if it is a work of fiction or nonfiction. This is where the gaps in the writing emerge. Haroon oscillates between 1970’s and late 2000’s when mentioning the Bangladesh war and the recent attack on a revered Sufi tomb in Lahore in the same breath. Instances like this tend to create confusion regarding the timeline of the work in the minds of the readers.
The work also has its moments of intense thrill where it becomes really grasping and unputdownable, while at times the imminent plot is too predictable. The penultimate moment of the book, its climax, is a point in case of predictability. It hits a low where everything is hunky dory in the lives of the protagonists. This is far too simplistic and removed from the reality that life, and life in Pakistan, is.
However, it is commendable that Haroon has dealt with Pakistan in a new light where the focus group has been the middle class, a deviation from the usual elite-civil-military-terrorist nexus. He has touched on the history and politics of the country without being preachy or bogging down readers with extraneous information. His empathy for the protagonists shows from time to time but at times it borders didactical/didactics and it feels that they are mere mouthpieces of author’s own beliefs and ideas.
Overall, the book is a great read for those interested in learning about life in Pakistan today, written in lucid and uncomplicated style with vivid details and knowledge of life and struggle behind the headlines that world reads about Pakistan today.
Reza family is a first generation of migrants from the Kashmir Valley to the city of Lahore during partition. Unsure of the fate that would be their ancestral land, Reza family quickly settled into this historic city in the 1950’s. That is also when internal transformations were taking place within Pakistan, a new nation on shaky footholds, grasping to become a stable state. Through the family’s story Haroon K Ullah has attempted to tackle a set of typical Pakistani concerns today: lawlessness, terrorism, radicalisation, sectarianism, economic instability, maintaining middle class status, gaining education, America’s war on terror etc.
Essential to the entire book is the emphasis that Haroon has given to the middle class in Pakistan who in the plethora of existing literature on the country has not been given a due voice or visibility. He states at the outset that the work is to portray “the fascinating but unseen struggles of the ordinary middle class families in Pakistan”. The Rezas are one of those families. The patriarch of the family Awais is a veteran of the 1971 Bangladesh War, turned trader. Shez, the matriarch/mother, is a nurse since that war. She is dour and highly intuitive, preferring to remain in the background. Their three sons are Salman, Daniyal and Kamran. Salman is a school dropout, an opium addict who helps out his father with his business. While, Daniyal attends a madrassa where he is being radicalised and trained to become a terrorist. The youngest, Kamran is studying on a scholarship to become a lawyer. It is through Daniyal and Kamran that Haroon portrays the dichotomy of Pakistani society at present, the struggle between the radical and the liberal.
As the story unfolds, it becomes clear that this is not an ordinary tale of middle class aspirations or strife of mundane life. In Haroon’s own words, “the kind of story investigative journalists fight over”. But Haroon himself is not a journalist. He is a senior Pakistani-American Diplomat with a deep understanding of South Asia, especially Pakistan. He states that the book is a result of eight years of extensive field research in South Asia and his relationship with a Pakistani family. He has also conducted several face to face interviews with Taliban commanders to shape this book. However, the combination of journalism, anthropology, politics and storytelling leaves the readers wondering if it is a work of fiction or nonfiction. This is where the gaps in the writing emerge. Haroon oscillates between 1970’s and late 2000’s when mentioning the Bangladesh war and the recent attack on a revered Sufi tomb in Lahore in the same breath. Instances like this tend to create confusion regarding the timeline of the work in the minds of the readers.
The work also has its moments of intense thrill where it becomes really grasping and unputdownable, while at times the imminent plot is too predictable. The penultimate moment of the book, its climax, is a point in case of predictability. It hits a low where everything is hunky dory in the lives of the protagonists. This is far too simplistic and removed from the reality that life, and life in Pakistan, is.
However, it is commendable that Haroon has dealt with Pakistan in a new light where the focus group has been the middle class, a deviation from the usual elite-civil-military-terrorist nexus. He has touched on the history and politics of the country without being preachy or bogging down readers with extraneous information. His empathy for the protagonists shows from time to time but at times it borders didactical/didactics and it feels that they are mere mouthpieces of author’s own beliefs and ideas.
Overall, the book is a great read for those interested in learning about life in Pakistan today, written in lucid and uncomplicated style with vivid details and knowledge of life and struggle behind the headlines that world reads about Pakistan today.