How Salman Rushdie’s ‘Midnight’s Children’ changed my life | The Daily Star
Skip to main content
E-paper বাংলা
T
Latest
300 mobile phones being mugged daily in Dhaka: DB Bangladesh among top 3 countries for Facebook active user growth: Meta Plight of DNCC wards 52, 53: Life seemed better under union parishad Chinese balloon advanced, hard to shoot down: US expert BNP rally starts at Nayapaltan Khulna tense ahead of Awami League, BNP rallies Bangladesh should probe allegations of enforced disappearances, torture: HRW World’s longest river cruise Ganga Vilas anchors at Mongla Jubo League holds rally at Farmgate Malaysia to continue facilities for Bangladeshi students The day the music died - how Buddy Holly's tragedy inspired 'American Pie' 585 killed in 593 road crashes in January Combatting Cancer: 2 in 3 patients die without treatment China balloon soaring over US deflates hopes for diplomatic thaw By-Poll Drama, Hero Alom, and a Smart Bangladesh
The Daily Star
Journalism Without Fear or Favour
Saturday, February 4, 2023
  • E-paper
  • বাংলা
Latest
300 mobile phones being mugged daily in Dhaka: DB Bangladesh among top 3 countries for Facebook active user growth: Meta Plight of DNCC wards 52, 53: Life seemed better under union parishad Chinese balloon advanced, hard to shoot down: US expert BNP rally starts at Nayapaltan Khulna tense ahead of Awami League, BNP rallies Bangladesh should probe allegations of enforced disappearances, torture: HRW World’s longest river cruise Ganga Vilas anchors at Mongla Jubo League holds rally at Farmgate Malaysia to continue facilities for Bangladeshi students The day the music died - how Buddy Holly's tragedy inspired 'American Pie' 585 killed in 593 road crashes in January Combatting Cancer: 2 in 3 patients die without treatment China balloon soaring over US deflates hopes for diplomatic thaw By-Poll Drama, Hero Alom, and a Smart Bangladesh
The Daily Star
Saturday, February 4, 2023 | Journalism Without Fear or Favour
  • Home
  • News
    • Bangladesh
    • Asia
    • World
  • Opinion
    • Views
    • Editorial
    • Letters to the Editor
  • Health
    • Diseases
    • Healthcare
    • Food
  • Sports
    • Cricket
    • Football
    • More Sports
  • Business
    • Economy
    • Global Economy
    • Organisation News
  • Entertainment
    • TV & Film
    • Music
    • Theatre & Arts
  • Culture
    • Art & Design
    • Books
  • Life & Living
    • Fashion & Beauty
    • Food & Recipes
    • Health & Fitness
  • Youth
    • Education
    • Careers
    • Young Icons
  • Tech & Startup
    • Science, Gadgets, and Tech
    • Startups
    • Automobiles
  • Feature
    • Lifestyle
    • Arts & Entertainment
    • Showbiz
    • Star Health
    • Satireday
    • Shout
    • Toggle
    • Star Literature
    • In Focus
    • Star Youth
    • Law & Our Rights
    • Daily Star Books
    • Roundtables
    • Supplements
  • Environment
    • Climate crisis
    • Natural resources
    • Pollution
  • NRB
বাংলা T
  • Home
  • News
    • Bangladesh
    • Asia
    • World
  • Opinion
    • Views
    • Editorial
    • Letters to the Editor
  • Health
    • Diseases
    • Healthcare
    • Food
  • Sports
    • Cricket
    • Football
    • More Sports
  • Business
    • Economy
    • Global Economy
    • Organisation News
  • Entertainment
    • TV & Film
    • Music
    • Theatre & Arts
  • Culture
    • Art & Design
    • Books
  • Life & Living
    • Fashion & Beauty
    • Food & Recipes
    • Health & Fitness
  • Youth
    • Education
    • Careers
    • Young Icons
  • Tech & Startup
    • Science, Gadgets, and Tech
    • Startups
    • Automobiles
  • Feature
    • Lifestyle
    • Arts & Entertainment
    • Showbiz
    • Star Health
    • Satireday
    • Shout
    • Toggle
    • Star Literature
    • In Focus
    • Star Youth
    • Law & Our Rights
    • Daily Star Books
    • Roundtables
    • Supplements
  • Environment
    • Climate crisis
    • Natural resources
    • Pollution
  • NRB

  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Apps
  • Comment Policy
  • RSS
  • Sitemap
  • Advertisement
  • Newsletter
  • Privacy Policy
  • Conference Hall
  • Archives
Daily Star Books

How Salman Rushdie’s ‘Midnight’s Children’ changed my life

Nahaly Nafisa Khan
Sun Aug 14, 2022 07:15 PM Last update on: Sun Aug 14, 2022 08:00 PM
Design: Sarah Anjum Bari

I was 16 years old when I read Salman Rushdie's Midnight's Children (1981) for the first time. I had not had my introduction to magic realism yet at that point of time. My 11th grader self had not even read Marquez yet. 

My college library had a diverse collection to offer for avid fiction readers like us, who would devour absolutely anything and everything. The library was pretty much the reason I would show up every day, and it was on one such fine morning when I got my hands on the paperback edition of Rushdie's novel. The cover had a simple, plain, off-white background, with the title calligraphed on it in a sombre yet striking red font, indicating the duality the book was about to uncover. The simplicity of it all caught my attention. 

For all latest news, follow The Daily Star's Google News channel.

What happened in the three following weeks was nothing less than magic. I found myself unable to stop reading. I would carry the book to dinner and read it in stealth during classes, under the covers of textbooks. This was an opening to a whole new world for me. Midnight's Children became my midnight's musings. Now that I come to think of it, maybe my fascination for words was only strengthened by the book, which worked in time to turn me into a writer. 

To trace back a tapestry of trauma: Partition inherited

Read more

The story, as we know, starts exactly 75 years ago on this day, at the stroke of the midnight hour, when people of this subcontinent were being divided by hatred and ousted from their homes based on their religious identities. Because of some strange tryst with destiny, two newborns were swapped at midnight—when two nations were on the brink of inception—and doomed to live each other's lives when the times-they-were-a-changin' rapidly. 

Metaphors have never made more sense to me than when these two swapped but intertwined lives personified India and Pakistan, the two newborn countries, whose births were marked by blood, pain and trauma. For someone who knew nothing about magic realism, it was the unfolding of an entire universe that I still carry within me. It is a lot for someone who deals in words regularly. Words never escape me for even a moment, but I still carry on with Rushdie's universe in my heart. Truth be told, I would not have it otherwise. That's how deep a mark the book left in my psyche. 

This subcontinent suffers from a collective partition trauma, till this day. The seeds of hatred and intolerance that fueled the events of that time have become even more rampant in their presence and influence.  

In Suchitra Vijayan’s new book, borders are as arbitrary as history

Read more

At the age of 16, these events were nothing more than history lessons to us, school-going children who got to know all of it from texts offered to us at school. But with each passing year as we have grown, we have come to understand the psychology of communal intolerance with which this subcontinent is plagued. In my case, Rushdie's novel played a huge role in creating the base for this understanding, at that young age. The understanding that the politics of division goes way beyond an individual's life, but affects it nonetheless. 

Saleem Sinai, the novel's narrator and protagonist with telepathic powers and extreme senses of smell, takes me on in his journey as he goes on to discover and assemble other midnight's children with extraordinary powers, like Parvati the witch and his arch nemesis, Shiva the "knees". In the process of each of their experiences, Rushdie weaves other timelines for me to live in, he allows me to be a part of Saleem's journey who sees it all—from an amnesiac exile to a soldier in the Sundarbans of 1971, when another country is on the brink of its birth from the existing two, to India's emergency and Sanjay Gandhi's "cleansing" of the Jama Masjid Slum—all with a sly, dark and humour-coated choice of words that makes the trauma of the events even more prominent. 

Salman Rushdie taken off ventilator and talking, agent says

Read more

As I write this, the subcontinent is remembering the 1947 Partition on its 75th anniversary. One country is celebrating its day of independence, while the other prepares for the same. In another corner of the world, Salman Rushdie, my favourite wordsmith, is fighting for his life.  

"To understand just one life you have to swallow the world ... do you wonder, then, that I was a heavy child?", Rushdie writes in the novel. Very few writers have reflected my feelings with such clarity. As I read back the words I have been able to write here so far, I see a lot of nonsensical gibberish as my aching heart finds it difficult to put my thoughts into words. 

But I'll have to say this. In a world that is so divided by hatred and intolerance and so united with a collective feeling of hopelessness, the magic created by Rushdie is my solace. His words work as music to my soul, and at other times, offer the reminder of the little bird in Midnight's Children. It whispers, "Be fair! Nobody, no country, has a monopoly of untruth." 

Nahaly Nafisa Khan is a writer and journalist. She is working as a sub-editor at The Daily Star's City Desk.

 

Related topic
Salman Rushdie / Midnight's Children / 1947 Partition / Partition / books
Apple Google
Click to comment

Comments

Comments Policy

Related News

USA

Salman Rushdie on ventilator after attack, may lose one eye

USA

Salman Rushdie taken off ventilator and talking, agent says

Star Literature

Facts, Fabulism, and Fantasy: Salman Rushdie’s Quichotte

Daily Star Books

To trace back a tapestry of trauma: Partition inherited

The Daily Star  | বাংলা
১ ঘণ্টা আগে|চট্টগ্রাম

বিএনপির সমাবেশ থেকে ৮ বার ‘ধন্যবাদ’ দেওয়াকে পুলিশ বলছে ‘বিব্রতকর’

চট্টগ্রামে বিএনপির সমাবেশ থেকে পুলিশকে বারবার ধন্যবাদ দেওয়ায় বিব্রতকর পরিস্থিতিতে পড়েছেন পুলিশ কর্মকর্তারা।

১ ঘণ্টা আগে|রাজনীতি

‘ম্যান্ডেলা-খোমেনির মতো বিদেশ থেকে দল চালাচ্ছেন তারেক’

The Daily Star
Follow Us
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Apps
  • Comment Policy
  • RSS
  • Sitemap
  • Advertisement
  • Newsletter
  • Privacy Policy
  • Conference Hall
  • Archives
© 2023 thedailystar.net | Powered by: RSI LAB
Copyright: Any unauthorized use or reproduction of The Daily Star content for commercial purposes is strictly prohibited and constitutes copyright infringement liable to legal action.