Monday, May 11, 2009

The Diary of a Social Butterfly - Moni Mohsin


Moni Mohsin was writing a column by the same name in Friday Times, a Pakistani News Paper. Later some of these, which were published during the time period 2001 -2008 , were compiled to a book.

"Butterfly"- the no-brain , convent-educated socialite from Pakistan. The sole objective of her life is partying. She speaks English mixed with a heavy dose of Urdu and even a heavier dose of grammatical\ spelling mistakes.Her classic dialogues like "thanks god","celeries of servants", "what cheeks" and "thousand-thousand times" are hilarious. The book also mentions the important political events of the world , esp. Pakistan , during the time period like 9/11 attack, earthquake in Pakistan, US elections and Benazir Bhutto's assassination and how butterfly is affected or rather not affected by all these. Butterfly is sad after 9/11 that she cannot immediately go to US for shopping. After the earthquake she wants to call her friends to tell them how much they have donated. When her husband and friends are discussing politics and when somebody mentions "two-party system", butterfly is prompt to add that in that case you should have one party in the morning and the other in the evening. Later she tells the readers that everybody was so impressed by this remark that there was silence for a few minutes.

The other characters of the diary are Janoo - butterfly's husband, Kulchoo - their son, Old Bag - the mother-in law, gruesome twosome- Janoo's sisters, Mummy, Aunt Pussy , Jonkers etc.

A book not to be missed, 4 out of 5.