Uff truly tabahi' — if one may borrow Butterfly's pet expression to describe Moni Mohsin's compilation of her weekly columns detailing the socialite's travesties into The Diary of a Social Butterfly. In case you are wondering Butterfly who bhai, well, she is Mohsin's 'dahling' jet-setting Lahori who gave readers of The Friday Times a giddy kaleidoscopic view of the trappings, failings, insecurities and frivolities of the Walled City's well-heeled. Mohsin's second work, The Diary of a Social Butterfly can in no way be likened to her first, comparatively staid, novel The End of Innocence. Mimicry is her signature style and she is in top form here.

For those not familiar with the column, here's a crash course Butterfly is a self-professed 'sophisty' married to 'zinda laash' Janoo (who has attended Oxford and is therefore an 'Oxen') and mother to Kulchoo. Other regulars in her life include Aunty Pussy (the wife of a corrupt former income tax collector who is on the look-out for her son's next bride), cousin Jonkers (thrice married and 'die-vorced'), best friend Mullo and her husband Tony ('only a bank defaulter'), Mummy (who is also very 'sophisty' and went to Kinnaird) and of course her 'paindu' in-laws.

Janoo is Butterfly's alter-ego who perpetually obsesses, in the protagonist's words, about 'the war on tourism and weapons of mass distraction and Guacamole Bay thousands of miles away.'

The book charts her life from June 2002 onwards and ends with the demise of Benazir Bhutto in December 2007 when she 'was no longer able to write.'

Through her writing (and awful spellings) we know of the 'big-big' and 'many-many' weddings, birthdays and basant parties that any self-respecting 'socialist' would never miss and in between we receive a hint of the socio-political goings-on.

Be it December 2003, when Butterfly has to attend the 'Sindh Club Ball, from where I'll rush back for Nazi and Mansha's son's wedding, and then back again to Karachi for the Murree At-a-Late Ball, aur phir the Tapal wedding,' or January 2005 when, after a tsunami hits Southeast Asia, 'Butterfly attends 15 parties in three days,' and even as she falls down with 'bronckite-us... [she has] not missed a single party or shaadi'. She is always on the front and never the back seat of the social scene.

But try as she might not to complicate her life and remain an airhead, Butterfly is not unaffected by rising extremism in the country. It's May 2007 and 'Butterfly participates in an anti-extremism rally' for she realises that 'mera bohat kuch jata hai. That's why I went to the march. Because I've realised there's no turning a blind eye to the fundos. Because they won't let you.' Nothing could be closer to the truth in the current milieu.

Published previously in India, the book has also received rave reviews across the border. In fact, she has had a fan following there for a long time. As The Telegraph India wrote 'Fools are her theme, satire her tenor.'

So when Moni Mohsin lets her pen flit over the life of the social butterfly... she does not merely provide a peepshow into Pakistani high life. She lets loose a scathing attack on Pakistani politics. And appropriately enough she has readers addicted to her brand of lampooning... So much so that when she came down to India to
attend the Jaipur Literary Festival earlier this year [2008], she was taken aback to find that even Indian readers knew the Butterfly.'

And hence, on returning to her home in London, she compiled her columns and published them in the form of a book.

If you want to read more, ignore the hot pink-coloured jacket (which will probably appeal more to the teensy crowds) and pick up this book for its highly entertaining and apt social commentary and flawed characters inspired from real life.

The strongest element of the diary is humour, which the new generation Pakistani writers seem to be blind to when writing — this probably stems from taking themselves too seriously. Thankfully, over the years, Mohsin did not fall into the trap of comparing the nouveau riche and the old moneyed, which is another favourite theme of Pakistani writers.

 Similarly, Mohsin's wit does not devolve into derision and hence you can't help but like the flawed characters she has created, be it Butterfly or Jonkers. Her social commentary — ranging from topics such as the invasion of Iraq to Benazir Bhutto's death — is also devoid of lecturing. Not meant to be a literary feat, The Diary of a Social Butterfly succeeds in documenting the life and times of ae generation.
 
The Diary of a Social Butterfly
By Moni Mohsin
Vanguard Books, Islamabad
ISBN 9789694025223
240pp. Rs595