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

ing,' proving that they were already beginning to succumb to the logic of t
he jungle, and that was only the start of it, because as the mystery of eve
ning compounded the unreality of the trees, the Sundarbans began to grow in
the rain.
At first they were so busy baling out their boat that they did not notice; a
lso, the water level was rising, which may have confused them; but in the la
st light there could be no doubt that the jungle was gaining in size, power
and ferocity; the huge stilt roots of vast ancient mangrove trees could be s
een snaking about thirstily in the dusk, sucking in the rain and becoming th
icker than elephants' trunks, while the mangroves themselves were getting so
tall that, as Shaheed Dar said afterwards, the birds at the top must have b
een able to sing to God. The leaves in the heights of the great nipa palms b
egan to spread like immense green cupped hands, swelling in the nocturnal do
wnpour until the entire forest seemed to be thatched; and then the nipa frui
ts began to fall, they were larger than any coconuts on earth and gathered s
peed alarmingly as they fell from dizzying heights to explode like bombs in
the water. Rainwater was filling their boat; they had only their soft green
caps and an old ghee tin to bale with; and as night fell and the nipa fruits
bombed them from the air, Shaheed Dar said, 'Nothing else to do we must lan
d,' although his thoughts were full of his pomegranate dream and it crossed
his mind that this might be where it came true, even if the fruits were different here.
While Ayooba sat in a red eyed funk and Farooq seemed destroyed by his he
ro's disintegration; while the buddha remained silent and bowed his head,
Shaheed alone remained capable of thought, because although he was drenc
hed and worn out and the night jungle screeched around him, his head beca
me partly clear whenever he thought about the pomegranate of his death; s
o it was Shaheed who ordered us, them, to row our, their, sinking boat to
shore.
A nipa fruit missed the boat by an inch and a half, creating such turbulenc
e in the water that they capsized; they struggled ashore in the dark holdin
g guns oilskins ghee tin above their heads, pulled the boat up after themse
lves, and past caring about bombarding nipa palms and snaking mangroves, fe
ll into their sodden craft and slept. When they awoke, soaking shivering in
spite of the heat, the rain had become a heavy drizzle. They found their b
odies covered in three inch long leeches which were almost entirely colourl
ess owing to the absence of direct sunlight, but which had now turned brigh
t red because they were full of blood, and which, one by one, exploded on t
he bodies of the four human beings, being too greedy to stop sucking when t
hey were full. Blood trickled down legs and on to the forest floor; the jun
gle sucked it in, and knew what they were like.
When the falling nipa fruits smashed on the jungle floor, they, too, exuded
a liquid the colour of blood, a red milk which was immediately covered in a