Midnight’s Children is a work of fiction...but subtly undetached from the Indian Reality. Itz about a thousand and one children who share their hour of birth with that of India...thus in a sense their life inexplicably linked to that of their siblings.
Two of these babies are born in the same Mumbai nursing home on the very stroke of midnight: a boy born to wealth and a boy born to the streets. And, imitating our very own Bollywood, a nursemaid switches babies: a street singer and a departing snobbish Englishman’s illegitimate child, Saleem, finds himself in a well to do family of Muslims; and a baby born with a golden spoon, Shiva, by an illogical nursemaid’s action is destined to streets. Incidentally Shiva and Saleem are fated to be mortal enemies from the precise stroke of midnight.
Saleem, the protaganist of the work, receives all the attention. His photo appears in the ’Times of India’ and the Prime Minister sends him a letter saying that his growth will be closely followed by the entire country and his fate shall forever be entwined with that of his country ( Paradoxically, Saleem fights for Pakistan in the 1971 war). Accidental events lead him to discover his special gift...the gift of telepathy...through which he can enter other lives, experience their dreams and extract all secrets. Unfortunately, the telepathy brings death, destruction and practically no happiness. He discovers his true parentage...making him fear Shiva forever. The same gift of telepathy links him to the other 1000 midnight children and he finds that each of them is uniquely gifted...some can make a Time Travel as in H.G.Well’s Time Machine...and one can change sex at will.
Saleem, a firm believer of causality ( though many an instance narcissitically so), feels that the midnight children are indeed the hope of the nation and tries an informal sort of a midnight parliament also. However, before this is realistically realised, digressions...each one significant in their own sense, envelop him and the exquisite gifts of the children are never utilised towards the hope. When they do finally meet, it is during Mrs. Gandhi’s Emergency.’ Because of the threat they pose to the Only True Succession, the 581 surviving midnight’s children are sterilized, and then treated to an even deadlier procedure: They are sperectomized - drained of hope.
Never have I read something as descriptive...though at times it tends to make the reader skip a few...it helps in building up one’s own imagination of the characters. The language is different (pun, similies, wit, poise, alliteration...you name it...you’ll find it) with split statements and repetitive words used to enhance the vision....something that the author himself calls as ’mad prose pyrotechnics’.
There are a few false notes...more because itz beyond my understanding:
At the very heart of the novel is a deception...that of switching the babies..Saleem and Shiva. The ancestors of Saleem aren’t really his. Then why does he have to keep talking about his ancestors?
Even after having read 550 pages of Saleem...I still do not feel his personality. Does he have one?
How is it possible to fall in love with one’s own sister with whom he has been for as long as a decade and half? Though one could contest the brother-sister relationship with the nurse’s switching...did not Saleem know this through his gift of telepathy as long as 6 years back?
In the process of construction and deconstruction of his writing, Saleem’s conclusion seems to be pessimistic: we can never approach the truth and have to live within imperfection. Is the author drawing our attention to the process of representation instead of the result?