Salman Rushdie reveals the world of Pakistan’s perpetual dictatorships, since its existence with his novel Shame. It talks about Shame and Shamelessness. But he also drives a home the fact that all that is uncovered is not shameless, and vice versa.
The story starts with the three Shakeel sisters giving birth to one son, Omar Khayyam Shakeel, in the city of Q. No. The city Q is not the Quetta that you have in your mind. But when Rushdie talks about Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad, he does talk about Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad. Omar Khayyam Shakeel does not know who his father is. That’s pretty much normal. But he does not even know who his mother is! He searched each face in the town for any resemblances with that of his own. He never lived up to his increasingly poetic name which his mothers intended him to be, but he goes on to be a doctor of international repute, a profession which would help him further on.
And this is not all. There’s more to shame and shamelessness. That is Sufiya Zinobia Hyder, who goes on to be Sufiya Zinobia Shakeel the shamelessness of her mother Bilquis Hyder, and Naveed Hyder, the shame of her mother. The man eater Sufiya Zinobia marries Omar Khayyam Shakeel to his peril, and Naveed gives way to a stream of life through her loins by giving birth to innumerable children in an arithmetic progression, every year, with the final lot being of 27 at once.
All this occurs, and has its roots in the perpetual and peculiar Pakistani cycle of imposed democracy followed by military dictatorship which repeats itself.
However, cover it all up, and life still goes on!