Skip to main content

Featured Post

Review of Executive Lounges at New Delhi Railway Station (NDLS)

During my recent trip to Uttarakhand , I was faced with a problem I had never encountered before. We were passing through Delhi, but we had hardly any time in the city. On earlier visits when I have had to change trains/flights at Delhi, I have always arrived in the morning and left again at night, visiting relatives in between. This time, I was arriving in the city at night, and leaving again early in the morning. There was hardly any time to visit people. I would only have a couple of hours with them before I’d have to leave again. For the first time, we considered booking a hotel, but there again, we were hesitant about the actual hotels, the costs involved, and the logistics of getting from the airport to the railway station and then back again from the station to the airport.  That’s when we remembered reading something about a corporate-managed lounge at Delhi station. We soon figured out that we could book online and pay by the hour. Besides, we also learnt that there wasn’t ju

Book Review: Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie




In his introduction to Midnight’s Children, Salman Rushdie writes –


“As I placed Saleem (born at the midnight moment of Indian independence) at the centre... I understood that his time of birth would oblige me immensely to increase the size of my canvas. If he and India were to be paired, I would need to tell the story of both twins. Then Saleem, ever a striver for meaning, suggested to me that the whole of modern Indian history happened as it did because of him; that history, the life of his nation-twin, was somehow all his fault.”

Later, he elaborates, in Saleem’s own words –

“...it is Kali Yuga; the children of the hour of darkness were born ... in the midst of the age of darkness; so that although we found it easy to be brilliant, we were always confused about being good. ......”

And then –

“Reality can have metaphorical content; that does not make it less real. A thousand and one children were born; there were a thousand and one possibilities which had never been present in one place at one time before; and there were a thousand and one dead ends. Midnight’s children can be made to represent many things, according to your point of view; they can be represented as the last throw of everything antiquated and retrogressive in our myth-ridden nation, whose defeat was entirely desirable in the context of a modernizing, twentieth century economy; or as the true hope of freedom....”

That, in a nutshell, is what the book is about.

To elaborate a bit more, and get on with my review, here are some thoughts I had, as I read the book.

To begin with, it is not an easy read. I am usually a fast reader, but this book took me more than a month to read. It is not one of those books which you can read at one go. There are parts which make you stop and think, and the narrative at times makes you wonder where on earth the story is going.

The story might be about Saleem, but it is, in fact, a beautiful way of writing history. Every event in the book relates to events which occurred in India in the three decades following independence, and while the story is all about connecting Saleem, and the midnight’s children to the events, it does provide a look at the events in a manner other than simply reading about them in a newspaper or in an history book. This is something the author seems to have noticed, for he writes in his introduction –
“In the west, people tended to read Midnight’s children as a fantasy, while in India, people thought of it as pretty realistic, almost a history book.”

We all remember events, not just by themselves, but how they affected us. For example, I shall always remember Indira Gandhi’s assassination with our being stuck in Madras, worrying about our journey to Delhi, for my aunt’s wedding, and the Babri Masjid riots with being stuck in college, and getting into a running train in a desperate attempt to get back home safe. Yes, this is no way concerned with the book, but it’s what I loved about the book, his connecting of historical events with events in Saleem’s life. The only difference is, while we look at events in our life against the backdrop of events happening in our country, Saleem looks on at the events happening in the country against the events occurring in his life.... each connected with the other, by virtue of his time of birth.

Rushdie’s choice of the protagonist as the narrator, writing his autobiography, reading it out to his lover... is not just interesting, it is brilliant. It allows him to use a typically Indian narrative – rambling, lengthy, filled with anecdotes, jumping back and forth between different time periods, now talking of a time in the past, now jumping to the present, suddenly going way back in time, and once again leaping ahead, suggesting what is yet to come, tantalising the reader with bits of what lie ahead, constantly reminding us of events in the past (which was actually very useful, since I didn’t have to constantly refer to past happenings). If you have ever heard your grandmother tell you stories of her youth, you will surely see the similarity.

At first, as I struggled to read the book, I wondered why on earth it had won the Best of the Booker award. It was only by the time I completed it that I realised why. To start off with, there is the language – it is simple, easy enough for the casual reader, but good enough for the connoisseur; his choice of words for his characters is just about perfect, he manages to blend in Hindi slang and Indian English without taking anything away from the overall language of the book, something few Indian authors manage to achieve.  Add to this his choice of metaphors for describing anything and everything... ranging from a torn bed sheet to the family nose inherited by Saleem, and you have a literary masterpiece!

Then there is his writing style – cynical, satirical, with the underlying sense of humour at the whole situation. He laughs at the typically Indian mentality, at times, cruelly and brutally honest, forces us to see things as they are. And yet, he holds on to the story, and our interest.

The very idea of midnight’s children itself is so typically Indian; it is so much in tune with our love for mythology and seeking a divine meaning, a higher reason for every single event, that it seems inevitable that the children will end up much like our own country – confused, corrupt and helpless.

And, just like almost everything in our country, he carries it a bit too far...The story could have been simpler with just a few midnight’s children, instead, he chooses a number which is difficult to handle, and even with just three of them being important, he fails to give each of them their place in the sun. The story might be Saleem’s. But in that case, the title should have been ‘Midnight’s Child”. Having associated Saleem’s destiny with other children, especially Shiva, I expected to read more about him as the book progressed, which didn’t happen. We hear of Shiva just off and on through the book, when, by rights, simply by virtue of his birth, he should have been a co-protagonist. But the story, narrated by Saleem, remains Saleem’s alone. But then, that was probably the author’s way of showing us the injustice in the world, in which case, he does succeed. 

P.S. This book was sent to me for review by Random House India


Comments

  1. thanks for ur review, now I think i can go back to reading this book which I had read just 100 pages and have put it away because i found it too heavy a read
    :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. do go and continue reading, Pushpa... and tell me what you think of the rest. it really was tough to read to start with... but it gets better... would love to know if u think so too.. as i mentioned, it took me more than a month to read... dont even remember when i last took so much time to read one book!!!! and it took almost an equivalent amount of time to write the review since i really didnt know what to write!

      Delete
  2. hey Anuradha, I have been following your blog for more than 6 months and love everything you write . Your this particular book review is very incisive and I must say ,your analytical understanding of literature is very fine. I so loved reading this .I would never have picked up this book even if it was lying next to me for months but for this review which has inspired me to go get it and read it.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks so much, Kirti! good to see you commenting!!! i would love to know what you think of the book...

      Delete
  3. Hey Anu ,I too want to echo Pushpa's words. Time to pick it up again ,I feel.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Namita... do pick it up once more... and let me know what you think!

      Delete
  4. Your post made me to decide to read the book.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Oh Anu, not fair. After every book review of yours, one more book gets added to my to-be-read pile which has become so large that even I don't know what all is there !

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Thanks so much for stopping by. Please leave a comment for me so that I will know you have been here....

Popular posts from this blog

Gokarna Part II – The Five Lingams

We continued our Gokarna trip by visiting four other Shiva temples in the vicinity, all connected to the same story of Gokarna. The story of Gokarna mentions the Mahabaleshwara Lingam as the one brought from Kailas by Ravana, and kept at this place on the ground by Ganesha. (See my earlier post- Gokarna – Pilgrimage and Pleasure). However, the story does not end here. It is believed that, in his anger, Ravana flung aside the materials which covered the lingam- the casket, its lid, the string around the lingam, and the cloth covering it. All these items became lingams as soon as they touched the ground. These four lingams, along with the main Mahabaleshwara lingam are collectively called the ‘ Panchalingams’ . These are: Mahabaleshwara – the main lingam Sajjeshwar – the casket carrying the lingam. This temple is about 35 Kms from Karwar, and is a 2 hour drive from Gokarna. Dhareshwar – the string covering the lingam. This temple is on NH17, about 45 Kms south of Gokarna. Gunavanteshw

The Havelis of Bikaner - A Photo Post

The lanes are narrow , twisting and turning amidst buildings old and new. Crumbling old structures with intricate workmanship stand side by side with art deco buildings, and more modern constructions, which follow no particular style. Autos, bicycles, motorcycles and vans rush past, blowing their horns as loudly as possible, while cows saunter past peacefully, completely unaffected by the noise. In the midst of all this chaos, children play by the side, and women go about their chores, as we explore these by-lanes of Bikaner, and its beautiful Havelis. Facade of one of the Rampuria Havelis

The Elephanta Caves

The Elephanta Caves , located on Elephanta Island, or Gharapuri, about 11 Km off the coast of the Gateway of India, Mumbai, are a UNESCO World Heritage Site. A visit to these caves, excavated probably in the 6 th century CE, is awe-inspiring, and also thought-provoking. Over the years, I have visited the caves a number of times, and also attended a number of talks by experts in the fields of art, history and archaeology on the caves. Together, they help me understand these caves, their art, and the people they were created for, just a little bit better. Every new visit, every new talk, every new article I read about the caves, fleshes out the image of what the island and the caves would have been like, at their peak. I last wrote about the caves on this blog, in 2011, almost exactly 11 years ago. Since then, my understanding of the caves has, I would like to think, marginally improved. Hence this attempt to write a new and updated post, trying to bring to life, the caves of Elephan