Salman Rushdie Midnight's children Salman Rushdie Midnight's ...

d Mother ordered. 'If there are Hindu servants, let them go home!'); and Am
ina did not dare to visit the racetrack.
But for every snake, there is a ladder: and finally the radio gave us a nam
e. Nathuram Godse. 'Thank God,' Amina burst out, 'It's not a Muslim name!'
And Aadam, upon whom the news of Gandhi's death had placed a new burden o
f age: 'This Godse is nothing to be grateful for!'
Amina, however, was full of the light headedness of relief, she was rushing
dizzily up the long ladder of relief… 'Why not, after all? By being Godse he
has saved our lives!'
Ahmed Sinai, after rising from his supposed sickbed, continued to behave li
ke an invalid. In a voice like cloudy glass he told Amina, 'So, you have to
ld Ismail to go to court; very well, good; but we will lose. In these court
s you have to buy judges…' And Amina, rushing to Ismail, 'Never never under
any circumstances must you tell Ahmed about the money. A man must keep his
pride.' And, later on, 'No, janum, I'm not going anywhere; no, the baby is
not being tiring at all; you rest, I must just go to shop maybe I will vis
it Hanif we women, you know, must fill up our days!'
And coming home with envelopes brimming with rupee notes… 'Take, Ismail, no
w that he's up we have to be quick and careful!' And sitting dutifully besi
de her mother in the evenings, 'Yes, of course you're right, and Ahmed will
be getting so rich soon, you'll just see!'
And endless delays in court; and envelopes, emptying; and the growing baby,
nearing the point at which Amina will not be able to insert herself behind
the driving wheel of the 1946 Rover; and can her luck hold?; and Musa and
Mary, quarrelling like aged tigers.
What starts fights?
What remnants of guilt fear shame, pickled by time in Mary's intestines, led
her willingly? unwillingly? to provoke the aged bearer in a dozen different
ways by a tilt of the nose to indicate her superior status; by aggressive c
ounting of rosary beads under the nose of the devout Muslim; by acceptance o
f the title mausi, little mother, bestowed upon her by the other Estate serv
ants, which Musa saw as a threat to his status; by excessive familiarity wit
h the Begum Sahiba little giggled whispers in corners, just loud enough for
formal, stiff, correct Musa to hear and feel somehow cheated?
What tiny grain of grit, in the sea of old age now washing over the old bea
rer, lodged between bis lips to fatten into the dark pearl of hatred into w
hat unaccustomed torpors did Musa fall, becoming leaden of hand and foot, s
o that vases were broken, ashtrays spilled, and a veiled hint of forthcomin
g dismissal from Mary's conscious or unconscious lips? grew into an obsessi
ve fear, which rebounded upon the person who started it off?
And (not to omit social factors) what was the brutalizing effect of servant
status, of a servants' room behind a blackstoved kitchen, in which Musa wa