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

any features he chose, and Harilal who could run at the speed of the wind,
and God knows how many others… 'Who says it's better to do one thing or an
other?' And, 'Can you fly? I can fly!' And, 'Yah, and me, can you turn one
fish into fifty?' And, 'Today I went to visit tomorrow. You can do that? We
ll then '… in the face of such a storm of protest, even Shiva changed his t
une; but he was 'to find a new one, which would be much more dangerous dang
erous for the Children, and for me.
Because I had found that I was not immune to the lure of leadership. Who fo
und the Children, anyway? Who formed the Conference? Who gave them their me
eting place? Was I not the joint eldest, and should I not receive the respe
ct and obeisances merited by my senior ity? And didn't the one who provided
the club house run the club?… To which Shiva, 'Forget all that, man. That
club shub stuff is only for you rich boys!' But for a time he was overruled
. Parvati the witch, the conjurer's daughter from Delhi, took my part (just
as, years later, she would save my life), and announced, 'No, listen now,
every, body: without Saleem we are nowhere, we can't talk or anything, he i
s right. Let him be the chief!' And I, 'No, never mind chief, just think of
me as a… a big brother, maybe. Yes; we're a family, of a kind. I'm just th
e oldest, me.' To which Shiva replied, scornful, but unable to argue: 'Okay
, big brother: so now tell us what we do?'
At this point I introduced the Conference to the notions which plagued me all
this time: the notions of purpose, and meaning. 'We must think,' I said, 'wh
at we are for.'
I record, faithfully, the views of a typical selection of the Conference mem
bers (excepting the circus freaks, and the ones who, like Sundari the beggar
girl with the knife scars, had lost their powers, and tended to remain sile
nt in our debates, like poor relations at a feast): among the philosophies a
nd aims suggested were collectivism 'We should all get together and live som
ewhere, no? What would we need from anyone else?' and individualism 'You say
we; but we together are unimportant; what matters is that each of us has a
gift to use for his or her own good' filial duty 'However we can help our fa
ther mother, that is what it is for us to do' and infant revolution 'Now at
last we must show all kids that it is possible to get rid of parents!' capit
alism 'Just mink what businesses we could do! How rich, Allah, we could be!'
and altruism 'Our country needs gifted people; we must ask the government h
ow it wishes to use our skills' science 'We must allow ourselves to be studi
ed* and religion 'Let us declare ourselves to the world, so that all may glo
ry in God' courage 'We should invade Pakistan!' and cowardice 'O heavens, we
must stay secret, just mink what they will do to us, stone us for witches o
r what all!'; there were declarations of women's rights and pleas for the im
provement of the lot of untouchables; landless children dreamed of land and
tribals from the hills, of Jeeps; and there were, also, fantasies of power.