Word: mueenuddin
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Writers aren't famous for getting up early, but Daniyal Mueenuddin, author of the debut story collection In Other Rooms, Other Wonders (Norton; 247 pages), keeps farmers' hours. Literally. "I crawl out of bed about 6 and have some tea," he says, "and immediately I meet my managers"--that is, the managers of his small farm in rural Pakistan. "Then they go off and do their thing, and I write until 2." The rest of the afternoon he spends either out on the land or going through the finances. "I tend to soft-play the accounts and spend more time...
...When a UNICEF team decided to dispatch a flotilla of 11 boats up the Indus, loaded with relief supplies, I jumped at the chance to sail into these forbidden valleys. Even though the tribes had requested assistance, UNICEF project leader Tamur Mueenuddin, a tireless Pakistani doctor, wasn't sure what sort of reception his team would get. What little money Kala Dhaka's tribesmen scrape together, usually from selling opium, is spent on guns. Scenes flashed through my mind from the film Deliverance, in which Burt Reynolds and his rafting buddies are picked off by vengeful hillbillies...
...chugged up the blue-green Indus in an armada of gaily-painted boats, each powered by belching tractor engines. Mueenuddin stood in the prow of his boat like a wavy-haired admiral. Occasionally he consulted his laptop; the Kala Dhaka elders huddled around in awe as though it were a glowing magic tablet. To Mueenuddin, this was "Operation Congo" because, he said, "We're going into the heart of darkness...
...Each Kala Dhaka tribe is governed by a jirga, or council of elders, which rules on land disputes, feuds, and matters of clan honor and revenge. As our flotilla pulled up to the riverbank, a jirga and their gunmen were on hand to welcome Mueenuddin. He was escorted up to an ancient shade tree beside a mosque. This was a crucial moment: would the elders allow us to sail upriver, or would they grab all the aid for themselves? Mueenuddin made his case eloquently. A few supplies were dropped off, and I saw a line of men like ants hefting...