The Midnight's Children

The novel is a narrative of Saleem Sinai, who is narrating his personal story to his friend & companion Padma. The Novel starts with the introduction of Saleem Sinai, who is a child born on the exact moment of India’s Independence , after that the story jumps back into the past to his grandfather describing the year 1915, when his grandfather came to Kashmir after completing his Medical degree. There he treats Naseem, his future wife, never actually looking her completely but through a sheet of cloth in which a hole has been made to show the doctor the infectious part of her body. Aadam (Saleem’s grandfather) fall in love with Naseem. After this the couple shifts from Kashmir to Agra. Aadam and Naseem are having three girls named Alia, Mumtaj, Emerald and two sons Mustapha and Hanif. Aadam is very much inspired by the social activist Mian Abdullah, whose anti-partition stands becomes the cause of his assassination. As a result of this, Nadir Khan, Mian’s frightened assistant take shelter in the basement of Aadam’s house for which Aadam agrees despite the resistance of his wife. Soon, Nadir and Mumtaz fall in love and get married. Due to jealousy Emerald informs Major Zulfikar about the hideout of Nadir after which Nadir is sent running for his life. Left by her husband, Mumtaz agrees to marry Ahmad Sinai, and change her name to Amina Sinai. Amina and Ahmad shifts to Delhi but due to burning of Ahmad’s factory by a terrorist group they finally settle in Bombay. Amina get pregnant, and at the very moment of Indian independence Amina gave birth to Saleem Sinai. At Saleem’s birth a nurse (Mary Pereira) switches him with some other infant born at the same moment (i.e. Saleem is not the real child of Amina) to give the poor child a life of luxuries and the other child a life of miseries. Suffering from guilt the nurse becomes the 'aayah' for Saleem. Because of the exact moment of Indian Independence Saleem soon get famous. Slowly Saleem discovers that he has the ability of telepathy, and eventually he begins to hear the thoughts of the children born during the first hour of Independence. There were 1001 children who were born in the first hour of Independence and their number have been reduced to 581 by their tenth birthday-all of them have magical powers, the strength of the power depends on how close to independence they were born. Saleem discovers the boy (Shiva) with whom he was switched. Shiva has a very special gift for combat. Sooner, Saleem accidently loses his finger and that's how Ahmad finds out that Saleem is not the real son of him, because of the blood type mismatch. Ahmad become alcoholic and force Amina to go to Pakistan with Saleem and the Brass monkey (Saleem’s younger sister) to live with Emerald where Emerald’s husband, General Zulfikar stages a coup against Pakistani Government. After 4 years, Ahmad suffers from a heart failure, Amina returns to Bombay with her children. Due to the congestion in Saleem’s nose, he undergoes a surgery after which he lost his telepathic powers but in returns he gains a great sense of smell with which he can detect emotions. This is the time when India goes to war with China. After India’s defeat to China, whole of Saleem’s family moves to Pakistan and his younger sister becomes the most famous singer of Pakistan known as Jamila. Finally all of Saleem’s family get killed in the India Pakistan war except him and Jamila. Saleem gets hit by his grandfather’s spittoon in his head and lost his memory. Taking advantage of this the Pakistani military uses him as a perfect tracker because of his great sense of smell. After viewing a number of atrocities he finally flew into the jungle. Then he left the jungle and found Parvati (a witch) (one of the midnight’s children) who reminds him of his name and helps him to escape back to India. In India, he lives with her and the magicians’ cult. Disappointed with Saleem, that he will not marry her, Parvati moves to Shiva who has become a famous war hero. Things didn’t get right for between Parvati and Shiva, and she finally returns to the cult, pregnant and unmarried, to which the cult refuses to accept her until Saleem marries her. Meanwhile, threatened from the midnight’s children, the government of Indira Gandhi begins a sterilization campaign. Soon after the birth of Parvati’s son the govt destroys the magicians’ cult, Parvati dies there and Saleem is captured by Shiva and brought to a sterilization camp. Saleem deciphers the names of the midnight’s children one by one and they get sterilized to shun the generations eventually the powers of the midnight’s children. However, Indira Gandhi loses her first elections and the midnight’s children are set free. Saleem now set free tries to find Parvati’s son. He finds him and moved to Bombay where he finds his aayah who has become an owner of a grand chutney factory and his friend Padma. Finally He marries Padma thus bringing an end to the story.

According to my thoughts, the novel is a very lengthy one with much sophisticated language. Salman Rushdie has given all the characters a detailed description in the novel. The novel is trying to club the Indian independence with common people. He is trying to bring a magical reality into the novel by bringing the magical powers of the midnight’s children, where the children are trying to get their lives normal, all of them are suppressed by the govt of India. It contains much diversified description of stories, for once it is the story of the house of Aadam Aziz and at another point of time it’s the politics of a huge nation like India. But finally the overall story ends is a positive tone when Saleem weds Padma.