Of triumphs and failures
Anika Saba is cheered by a much-read work
It is very difficult to write about a book as famous as Midnight's Children since there has been so much written about it in the last three decades. I doubt there is anything left to say and yet I want to add my humble opinion to its overwhelmingly long list of appraisals. I clearly remember the class where Professor Fakrul Alam (at the department of English, Dhaka University) mentioned Salman Rushdie while talking about postcolonial literature and advised us to read him, that is, if we could get him (since he had been banned from many Islamic countries after the controversy of The Satanic Verses). However, contrary to much skepticism I discovered that Salman Rushdie was easily available in Nilkhet (good for us). I bought a copy of Midnight's Children immediately and plunged into it with high expectations knowing that it had won the Booker Prize in 1981 and the Booker of Bookers in 1993 and 2008. I could not wait to discover what all the fuss was about. However, I have to admit that, at first I was a little disappointed because I could not make head or tail of the work in the initial hundred pages set in Kashmir and Delhi. I could not understand what was happening and where it all was leading. For a moment, I lost interest and was almost giving it up when something, I think it was the countdown to the Partition of 1947, that made me stick to it and I am so glad that I did. Otherwise I would have missed a great masterpiece of a work. Now, you might ask what the book is about. I do not know where to begin and where to end-- Gandhi, Nehru, Ayub Khan, even our Sheikh Mujib, and not to forget the five hundred and eighty one children possessing supernatural powers like telepathy and witchcraft. Yes, it sounds absurd that the book is about gifted children who are sought and finally captured by the orders of --- Wait! You have to read it to find out. History and magic collide in the most incredible manner ever imagined and it would have been disastrous for us had the genius of Salman Rushdie not managed to convince and sell the idea to the whole world. So it is no wonder that the book is a unique example of many things at the same time-- postcolonial literature, magic realism and historical fiction. Postcolonial, for the obvious reasons. It is written by an Indian-British about the Indian subcontinent after 1947; magic realism since Saleem, the protagonist of the novel, and the other children born in India between 12 midnight and 1 a.m. on 15 August 1947 are endowed with supernatural powers (the explanation behind the title); and finally it is a historical fiction owing to the context of the actual historical events straddling India and Pakistan and even Bangladesh after the withdrawal of the British Empire. So, simply put, it is about the emergence and the inevitable hardships of India as an independent country after 1947 and subsequently its relations with Pakistan, China and Bangladesh. Therefore, it is a must-read for the people of the subcontinent. After all, Rushdie is talking about our triumphs and failures. And as for the rest of the world, I think, whether it likes it or hates it, it cannot ignore India. I am no scholar to evaluate a book as renowned as Midnight's Children but I believe it is every reader's prerogative to say what he likes or does not like about the book. To be honest, initially I thought the magical part was unsuitable in the work and was spoiling the book. But of course at the end I realized that every bit goes in making the book as grand as it is. For the most part, I enjoyed the historical aspects and their reflections on Saleem's personal life. I thought it was brilliant the way Rushdie zoomed in from the macrocosm of the subcontinent to the microcosm of Saleem's life and zoomed out. And, of course, Rushdie's language is the crowning jewel of the book, the reason I believe it has achieved so much fame and glory. The narrative technique is haunting in its ability to draw each character with intense depth and clarity and to capture the essence of each of the various settings which are crucial in the case of a book like Midnight's Children. Whether it is the Edenic hills of Kashmir, the mind-boggling busy streets of Mumbai or the mysteriously dangerous forests of the Sundarbans, Rushdie does justice in his descriptions and at the same time employs them intricately in knitting the life pattern of our protagonist Saleem and the book itself. In the introduction, Rushdie expresses his gratitude to Jane Austen for her help with the drawing of the women's characters and Charles Dickens for the rotting Bombay and the larger-than-life characters. I am a big fan of both, especially Miss Austen, so you can understand what the appeal was. But truly the language is the most potent feature of the book that will keep any reader glued to it.
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