Midnight's Children

Saleem’s narration switches back to the present. As he writes the story of his life, he is assisted by a woman named Padma. “Poor Padma” (27) cooks for Saleem and sarcastically encourages him to continue. Saleem returns to his grandfather’s story, describing how Aadam became smitten with Ghani’s daughter Naseem even though he only glimpsed her through the bedsheet. He treated her many times over the years but only ever saw parts of her body through the perforated sheet. Each time she has a new illness, he sees a new part of Naseem, and he steadily assembles “a badly-fitting collage of her severally-inspected parts” (28). Aadam’s growing love for Naseem provides a remedy for the hole that developed in him when he lost his religion. On the final day of World War I in 1918, Naseem finally complains of a headache. The women lift the sheet higher, and Aadam sees Naseem’s face for the first time. He knows he is completely in love with her.

In the same year, Aadam loses both his parents. Aadam’s father dies in his sleep, and then Aadam’s mother dies almost a month later. Now without parents, he must go to Ghani himself to ask permission to marry Naseem. Ghani happily agrees. Aadam is visited by Ilse, one of his friends and one-time lover from his German university. She brings news that Oskar, another of their friends, is dead. Aadam does not have much time to spend with Ilse. In the meantime, he receives a job offer from Agra University. He decides to accept, but before he leaves Kashmir, he proposes to Naseem. Before he leaves, Ilse drowns herself in the lake. Tai—who refuses to wash for three years and blames Aadam in an attempt to drive the European-educated doctor from the Kashmiri valley—claims many foreign women drown themselves in the lake. He never pretends to understand why, as he only cares about Kashmir. Tai falls ill a short time later, and Aadam, with Ghani’s blessing, marries Naseem.

Padma interrupts Saleem’s story. She brings him dinner and, by extorting Saleem by withholding his food, tells him to read her what he has written so far. Saleem admits that her criticisms can be useful for his storytelling, though Padma is not pleased about the way she is presented in the story. Saleem returns to his narrative in 1919. Now married, Aadam and Naseem live in “the holy city of Amritsar” (33). The city smells “of excrement” (33), but, somehow, Aadam and his large nose are not offended by the odor. The newly married couple argue regularly. At the same time in India, political leader Mahatma Gandhi calls for a day of mourning to protest the British Empire’s occupation of India. Riots occur on the day of mourning, and Aadam treats the wounded rioters while “Martial Law” (36) is declared. He uses a medicine named Mercurochrome, which leaves red, blood-like stains on his clothes, but Naseem believes that it is blood. When Aadam tells her the truth, she accuses him of trying to make her seem foolish. Nearly a week later, a peaceful protest defies the British government regulations. The British troops corral the protestors into a compound and open fire on them. Aadam, swept up in the protest, feels a tingle in his nose. He sneezes at the exact moment a bullet would have hit him. The strangely-timed sneeze saves his life. The other protestors are hit by more than 1,500 bullets aimed by the British. Before Saleem retires for the evening, he shares an “uncorroborated rumor” (37) about Tai’s death. Tai died in 1947 during the dispute between India and Pakistan over which country controlled his beloved Kashmir. He was shot by soldiers while offering them “a piece of his mind” (37).

Saleem worries about his worsening health as he is “literally disintegrating” (38) into dust. He explains that he works in a factory manufacturing chutney and similar condiments; Padma makes both his food and his bed in the factory so he can finish his story before he dies. He does not want his story nor the story of his country to be forgotten. At the same time, his impotency prevents him from satisfying Padma’s sexual demands. He feels her effect on the story, even as he is writing.

Returning to his family history, Saleem rejoins Aadam and Naseem in 1942, when they live in Agra with their five children: Emerald, Mumtaz, Hanif, Mustapha, and Alia. Naseem is a respected, mature member of the community, though she has trouble remembering the names of objects. The way she refers to objects as “whatsitsname” (41) becomes one of her unique traits. Another is her formidable attitude, as demonstrated when, after a dispute regarding the children’s religious tutor, she refused to cook for Aadam for a month. Aadam nearly starved before she found an acceptable way to change her mind, which allowed her to maintain her ego without admitting defeat. In 1942, Aadam is friends with a man named Mian Abdullah, also known as the Hummingbird. Mian is from “the famous magician’s ghetto in Delhi” (40) and is said to possess magical powers, such as the ability to control animals. Now, he is the head of the Free Islam Convocation, who oppose the partition between Pakistan and India that will create two religiously separate states. The way Mian organizes the different religious organizations in the city is almost a magic trick in itself. However, his actions are controversial. Mian is attacked by a group of assassins while visiting a university. While under attack, he begins to hum. His magic powers seem to take effect as an assassin’s eyes burst from their sockets. The sound causes the windows to shatter and can be heard by the neighborhood’s stray dogs, who rush toward Mian’s high-pitched humming. Though the dogs maul the attackers, Mian dies. His personal secretary, Nadir Khan, survives. A local rickshaw boy named Rashid helps Nadir to reach Aadam’s house to hide from further attacks.

Mian’s murder ends the “optimism epidemic“ (49) in the city. The sweeper woman who finds his body is told to clean the murder scene, and the murderers are never caught. Mian’s followers and loved ones mourn the loss; Aadam continues to treat the poor people of the city, throwing himself into his work so as not to think about his grief for his dead friend and the loss of his political optimism for the future. He is shocked one day when Nadir Khan appears in his bathroom and begs to be hidden. Aadam agrees, hiding Nadir in the basement. Naseem is worried about Nadir’s presence, as he is a wanted man, and her three young daughters live in the house. When Aadam insists, Naseem takes a vow of silence in protest. She stubbornly refuses to speak until Nadir Khan leaves. Aadam is annoyed by yet another of his wife’s “crazy oaths” (50).

Suitors begin to appear for Aadam’s daughters. One suitor is Major Zulfikar, an Army officer and “a man with a future” (51), who falls in love with Emerald. Alia, the eldest daughter, helps her mother navigate her vow of silence. Naseem has no compunction about closely monitoring all of her daughters’ lives, even if she cannot comment. She seems to have the power to enter her daughters’ dreams to “know what they’re up to” (52). Nadir falls in love with Mumtaz while hiding in Aadam’s basement; Mumtaz becomes devoted to Nadir while tending to him, even though he must remain constantly hidden. Alia courts a man named Ahmed Sinai. When Nadir asks Aadam for permission to marry Mumtaz, Aadam begrudgingly agrees. Naseem is not pleased. The family arranges a secret wedding. Mumtaz joins Nadir in the basement, only leaving during the day to avoid raising suspicions among the neighbors. The newly married couple make a home in the basement, which Mumtaz decorates.

The death of Mian Abdullah’s wife results in a “gemstone-encrusted silver spittoon” (54) being bequeathed to Aadam. The spittoon becomes a key part of the décor. Mumtaz becomes ill. When Aadam examines his daughter, he is shocked and angry that she is “still a virgin” (56) after two years of marriage to Nadir. The news is enough to shake Naseem out of her three-year silence. She hurls abuse at Aadam. In Saleem’s recollection, this incident occurred on August 9, 1945, the day the United States dropped an atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Nagasaki. The news spreads through the household. Emerald runs through the streets, even though she is not properly dressed, to tell Major Zulfikar about Nadir’s hiding place. Nadir runs away, leaving behind a letter in which he agrees to divorce Mumtaz. Emerald marries Major Zulfikar, and at the wedding, Mumtaz talks to Ahmed Sinai, even though Ahmed was previously courting her older sister Alia. Mumtaz eventually marries Ahmed and becomes Amina Sinai, Saleem’s mother.

Saleem describes the political situation in India in 1947, though he intersperses his story with complaints about his health and his doctor. He is still worried that his body may disintegrate and leave his story unfinished. The doctor, however, sees nothing wrong with him. His mother and father left Agra in 1947 to live in Delhi. They take Amina’s dowry (including the silver spittoon) with them on the train. Ahmed complains about the fare dodgers on the train, but Saleem considers them to be a “prophecy” (62). During this time, Amina continues to love Nadir but trains herself to love her new husband, Ahmed. Knowing she must leave Nadir in her past and focus on Ahmed, she teaches herself to love one part of him at a time, just as her father saw one part of her mother at a time through the perforated sheet. When they move into their new home as husband and wife, she unthinkingly decorates the new house in Delhi exactly as she decorated her basement in Agra. The silver spittoon is part of the décor. As he gains weight and loses his hair, Ahmed also begins to resemble Nadir. Amina, Saleem suggests, is remaking the marriage she lost through “a painstaking magic so obscure that Amina was probably unaware of working it” (63).

One morning, Ahmed is summoned to one of the warehouses he owns. A fire has broken out, supposedly set by a member of the “fanatical anti-Muslim movement” (66), Ravana. The group targets Muslims and demands protection money as part of an organized crime racket. Often, they bribe the security guards to ensure that their targets are destroyed. Fortunately for Ahmed, the warehouse next to his burns, but his building is saved. He decides to pay the protection money demanded by Ravana. Delhi is rife with tensions between Hindus and Muslims. On one street in a Muslim neighborhood, a young Hindu man named Lifafa Das presents a peep show of postcard images from around the world. However, a crowd of children starts chanting anti-Hindu slogans at him. He is chased through the streets until Amina hides him in her home. The crowd wants to lynch Lifafa, but Amina stands in their way, insisting that they will have to go through her first. For the first time, she tells people that she is “with child” (70). The mob is unwilling to attack a pregnant woman. The crowd leaves and Lifafa is grateful to Amina for saving his life. He offers to take her to his cousin, a famous fortune teller, to peer into the future of her unborn child. Saleem notes that this fortune teller will prophesy Saleem’s own future. One of Amina’s servants, named Musa, says nothing, but Saleem explains Musa will one day “destroy the world by accident” (71).

Saleem wonders about the nature of chance and fate, especially considering the story of his life and Musa’s accidental role in the end of the world. Reality and truth are not always the same thing, he notes, as he was taught by his nanny, Mary Pereira. Back in 1947, Ahmed secretly takes money to bribe the Ravana into not setting fire to his warehouses. After waiting for a “suitable moment” (72), Amina visits the fortune teller at the same time, passing through the impoverished neighborhoods at the edge of the city. She is wary about the people she encounters, but Lifafa encourages her to walk past the “insane shapes” (76) that dance in the shadows. Saleem remembers the missed opportunities and failures that plagued his father, such as an unrealized desire to rearrange the Quran in chronological order. Lifafa leads Amina into his cousin’s room. Ahmed obeys the Ravana’s instructions, leaving his bribe in an abandoned fort overrun by monkeys. Amina meets Lifafa’s cousin Ramram, who touches her pregnant belly and slips into a trance. He issues a confusing prophecy about the child: He will never be younger or older than his country. Ramram mentions something with two heads, he mentions noses, he mentions wizards, and he mentions a spittoon. After issuing the prophecy, Ramram collapses in an exhausted heap. Lifafa claims he has experienced “too much damn prophecy tonight” (79). At the fort, Ravana members collect the bribe, but they are attacked by the monkeys and the money spills across the ground, caught in the wind. Ahmed tries to recover the spilled money, which falls into a garbage-strewn ditch. The Ravana, feeling they have not been paid, respond by burning down the warehouses. The security guards are paid to take a sleeping potion, so they ignore the fire. Ahmed decides to move his family to Bombay, a place where land can be bought for cheap with the insurance money from the warehouse fire. As he boards a train to Bombay with his family, the British authorities announce a plan to partition India into two separate nations. India will be home to the Hindus, and Pakistan will be home to the Muslims. The days count down until the partition is implemented.

Bombay is a historical city. In the modern day, it is named Mumbai, and Saleem traces the colonial etymology of the city’s name. Ahmed and Amina buy a house in Bombay from an Englishman named William Methwold, whose estate has four identical houses, each named after a palace in Europe. Saleem’s parents agree to Methwold’s stipulation that they buy the house with everything inside; the legal transfer of the property will occur at the same time as India’s independence. Until then, everything must remain in its current state. Methwold claims his “little game” (86) reflects the symbolic nature of the sale. He wants to perform his own colonial transfer of property.

Also living on the Methwold estate is a film executive named Homi Catrack and his “idiot daughter” (87), who spends most of her time locked inside with a nurse; an elderly bearded man named Ibrahim Ibrahim; his wife, Nussie (nicknamed Nussie-the-duck because she walks with a waddling gait); and his sons Ishaq and Ismail; the Dubashes, who will eventually be the parents of Cyrus, Saleem’s future mentor; a dark-skinned man named Dr. Narlikar who hates children; and a high-flying Naval officer named Commander Sabarmati; his wife, Lila; and two sons who will be nicknamed Hairoil and Eyeslice. Hairoil and Eyeslice do not (and cannot) know that Saleem will one day “destroy their lives” (88). All the people on the estate spend the days leading up to August 15 complaining that they must live with Methwold’s possessions and his habits. The more time they spend living near Methwold and his possessions, the more they begin to pick up his habits, including his ritual of daily cocktail hour and even his British accent. Many of these habits linger on the estate long after Methwold’s departure.

The newspaper the Times of India offers a prize for any child born at the exact moment of India’s independence. Amina remembers Ramram’s prophecy and believes that her soon-to-be-born child will win. The servants join in her enthusiasm and talk excitedly about Saleem’s imminent birth. As the date draws closer, Amina and Ahmed note the return of a local beggar named Wee Willie Winkie. He performs tricks, songs, and more in exchange for food or money from William Methwold and the new arrivals. Willie tells people that, like Amina, his wife Vanita is expecting a child. Saleem reveals the truth: This child was fathered by William Methwold, who seduced Willie’s wife. Meanwhile, Mary Pereira goes to church to confess. She tells the priest about Joseph D’Costa, her revolutionary lover who has committed numerous violent acts against the British rulers but who has recently been rumored to be interested in Mary’s sister Alice. Mary fears Joseph is more interested in Alice, so she wants to impress him. Saleem hints that Mary will shape history. Meanwhile, Musa is still “ticking like a timebomb” (94). 

Padma has noticed Saleem’s attempts to build suspense in the story. She wants to know what happens next. Saleem, with a “little satisfied smile” (95), briefly recounts the flurry of history that led to the moment of his birth. Then, as the date of independence draws closer, the city of Bombay is filled with celebration. The day before India is set to become independent, the new country Pakistan will also be created. Violence between Muslims and Hindus occurs across India and Pakistan as the partition and independence approach. Saleem describes the days leading up to independence when numerous events occur at once. He mentions astrology, occultism, and the “protestations of horoscope-mongers” (97). William Methwold and Ahmed share a cocktail at the usual time as everyone on the estate prepares for Saleem’s birth. Aadam Aziz discovers that moths have chewed holes in the perforated sheet through which he first glimpsed Naseem. Vanita, the wife of Wee Willie Winkie, goes into labor. Methwold walks to the center of his estate and performs a salute. He touches his hair and reveals that his carefully arranged middle parting is actually a wig. A holy man arrives on the estate and, while sitting below a dripping tap, claims he is waiting for the arrival of the Mubarak, a prophesized figure. The moment he says this, Amina’s labor begins. As the sun sets, Methwold finishes his salute. Amina and Vanita give birth in the same hospital at the same time. They both give birth to sons at midnight as news of independence is broadcast on the radio. Ahmed celebrates the birth of his son but drops a chair on his foot. Amid the confusion, Mary Pereira switches the nametags on the babies. She does it “for Joseph” (103), her revolutionary-minded lover. Saleem, the biological son of Methwold and Vanita, will grow up in the wealthy household rather than the “accordions and poverty” (103) of Wee Willie Winkie’s home. Vanita dies due to a hemorrhage giving birth.

Padma interrupts Saleem’s story. She insists he cannot be telling the truth. Saleem defends his storytelling and claims he has “provided clues” (104) as to the twist in the narrative. Saleem explains that, even after his parents realized the truth, they could not bring themselves to undo what had happened. They continued to raise Saleem as their son. Later, Saleem would bury in his garden a letter from the Prime Minister of India and a newspaper article that refers to him as “Midnight’s Child” (105). His picture was taken for the article; the photographer gave his mother 100 rupees. Saleem criticizes the small amount, but Padma dismisses his criticisms as not everyone is paid for being born.