The Diary of a Social Butterfly by Moni Mohsin was published by Random House India in 2009. It is a hilarious chronicle of events through the point of view of a young woman that reads quite like a diary entry from a Gossip Girl. Much of the written language sounds almost like my mesh of Urdu-english at home (Can you garam it for me, Ma? I’m phooking him now…etc) or like friends and acquaintances who grew up in Pakistan but are now living abroad and have a continuous flow between Urdu and English, yet also many mistakes and mix-ups. Towards the middle, I thought it started to drag a little bit due to its repetitive content. I don’t usually have to force myself to read a good book, but this was one of the few I had to really pay attention to because it is awfully satirical and you can easily miss the critique if you don’t pay attention to everything that’s going on. There are also tons of characters and comic episodes that it’s almost exhausting to keep track of it all. But by the end, I realized why the author had been repetitive.

Butterfly, the main character, can appear a stereotypical elite Pakistani young woman, but her personality allows for different types of people to relate to her.

For example, many people criticize Butterfly’s marriage and ask Mohsin why Janoo chooses to stay with Butterly. While they disagreed on many things, I believe they have enough in common to live happily as individuals doing what they are most passionate about. Not once does Janoo really cut off Butterfly’s spending and Butterfly never forbids Janoo from  pursuing his humanitarian efforts. Their son also doesn’t seem to be living amidst a dysfunctional family, which proved to me that the couple knew each other well. At times, I even saw romance between them. I saw Butterfly sticking up for her husband in public and protecting him from embarrassment and Janoo appreciating his wife when she did say something intelligent. I mean, we have to look at their social and cultural context. Butterfly may have come from a well-to-do family, but she went to Kannaird College while her husband went to Oxford. Of course, she’s going to mix up words. And she has been reared since she was a little child to be an expert in makeup, clothing and protecting one’s interests and family, which she does quite well. Her relationship with her husband Janoo was not superficial, but very real. I have seen many couples interacting they way they do in the novel and have even realized that while my husband and I were raised in the same country, we have different outlooks on life–from where to buy the groceries to our future children’s education to other lifestyle options. We all have our comfort zones and levels of extravagance and fluff, but Mohsin writes Butterfly as somebody with multiple levels, which allows many of us to connect with her. I even saw my own relatives in her.

At first, one diary entry a month seemed ridiculous. Who writes only once a month? But after learning that the book was inspired by a monthly newspaper column, the entries actually showed change and movement. Butterfly in 2008 was not the same as the Butterfly in 2001–she had grown and evolved with Pakistan and the events that had been thrust upon the people of that country. So I think Butterfly could easily have been based on many of us. And as the author says, a lot of her content and columns were based on things she picked up/overheard real people participating in.

I won’t divulge anything more. Go out and read the book from wherever you can find it and let me know if you agree with my above relationship analysis. I am curious to know how many people in Pakistan have read this book and what they think of it. As well, I am interested in reading more of what Random House India has published—I think more of their books should be carried in Canadian bookstores.

Author:Iqra Azhar