Midnight's Children - Review

Never before, I took this much time to finish one book. Midnight’s children … it took nearly a year to finish. Salman Rushdie’s excellent work, his magical realism, it can excite and bore you at the same time. Many a times I kept aside this book for other literary works. This requires a lot of patience (in my case) and sound knowledge on Indian history for about a century. Being somewhat an ignorant in politics, I had to google many a times to understand the situation.

This book, given as an autobiography (narration to Padma) of Saleem Sinai, a pickle factory worker, who born at the stroke of 1947 August 15 midnight, turns out to be the right person to talk of post independent India. He relates every incident of his own life to the political turnouts of India. And many a times he feels responsible for those incidents too.

Being born at the stroke of midnight or the first born in independent India (a mistake owing its credit to Mary Pierra’s love for Joseph D’costa) he was gifted with some extra ordinary capabilities. And he took the sole responsibility to form the midnight’s children conference (in which all the 581 midnight’s children can tune in and talk); even though he lost his gifts once he crossed the boarder to Pakistan.

His olfactory senses were so strong that he was even able to smell emotions! And for his great rival Siva, (Saleem and Siva seem to represent India and Pakistan) the extraordinary gifts were his knees which were strong enough to overpower the nose.

The book which starts with Saleem’s grandfather Adam Aziz’s prayer, his eye drops turning solid in the Kashmiri cold and shining like diamond in the morning light and a drop of blood shining like ruby, gives the first glimpse of magical realism.

And the perforated sheet which passed from generation to generation--- from Naseem to great Jamila singer --- former been put behind it because of the so called culture then existed and the latter due to her own brother….The invisible cord of imagination links every incident of his life or he is leaking into history at every point of the story.

And one peculiar character in this story is Tai Bibi, who smells into Saleem’s love for his own (?) sister Jameela. Another interesting turn is about his son Adam Sinai who turns out to be the real grandchild of his parents while failing to become his own son.

Once back in India, he realizes that his real love is not for her sister Jameela, but for his nation sister India, who united in their births.

In this book, he had used strong words to describe the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. He symbolizes her dual colored hair (schizophrenic hair) as a representation of black and white parts of emergency. With the onset of emergency he loses his final thread - a lapis lazuli inlaid silver spittoon – which enabled him to cling to his past for so long. And his son, Adam Sinai, who was born at the exact moment when emergency was declared turned out to be so silent accepting the situation or in other words, a dumb - even though he had an extra ordinary gift in hearing. And one more change that emergency bring forth on Saleem is that the optimistic narrator turn out to be a victim of sperectomy –drained out of hope.

The novel ends with a view into the insecurities of ones life – generations rolling down unable to live or die in peace.


Foot note: Heard that I too had schizophrenic hair when I was born :)