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

S. P. Shetty; and at the Mahalaxmi Racecourse in Bombay, she punctured the
mighty balloon of his pride. He had been promenading about the paddock, st
ooping every few yards to return ladies' shawls and parasols, which seemed
to acquire a life of their own and spring out of their owners' hands as he
passed; Roshanara Shetty confronted him here, standing squarely in his path
and refusing to budge, her seventeen year old eyes filled with the ferocio
us pique of childhood. He greeted her coolly, touching his Army cap, and at
tempted to pass; but she dug her needle sharp nails into his arm, smiling d
angerously as ice, and strolled along beside him. As they walked she poured
her infantile poison into his ear, and her hatred and resentment of her fo
rmer lover gave her the skill to make him believe her. Callously she whispe
red that it was so funny, my God, the way he strutted around in high societ
y like some kind of rooster, while all the time the ladies were laughing at
him behind his back, O yes, Major Sahib, don't fool yourself, high class w
omen have always enjoyed sleeping with animals peasants brutes, but that's
how we think of you, my God it's disgusting just to watch you eat, gravy do
wn your chin, don't you think we see how you never hold teacups by their ha
ndles, do you imagine we can't hear your belches and breakings of wind, you
're just our pet ape, Major Sahib, very useful, but basically a clown.
After the onslaught of Roshanara Shetty, the young war hero began to see hi
s world differently. Now he seemed to see women giggling behind fans wherev
er he went; he noticed strange amused sidelong glances which he'd never not
iced before; and although he tried to improve his behaviour, it was no use,
he seemed to become clumsier the harder he tried, so that food flew off hi
s plate on to priceless Kelim rugs and belches broke from his throat with t
he roar of a train emerging from a tunnel and he broke wind with the rage o
f typhoons. His glittering new life became, for him, a daily humiliation; a
nd now he reinterpreted the advances of the beautiful ladies, understanding
that by placing their love notes beneath their toes they were obliging him
to kneel demeaningly at their feet… as he learned that a man may possess e
very manly attribute and still be despised for not knowing how to hold a sp
oon, he felt an old violence being renewed in him, a hatred for these high
ups and their power, which is why I am sure why I know that when the Emerge
ncy offered Shiva of the knees the chance of grabbing some power for himsel
f, he did not wait to be asked a second time.
On May 15th, 1974, Major Shiva returned to his regiment in Delhi; he claime
d that, three days later, he was suddenly seized by a desire to see once mo
re the saucer eyed beauty whom he had first encountered long ago in the con
ference of the Midnight Children; the pony tailed temptress who had asked h
im, in Dacca, for a single lock of his hair. Major Shiva declared to Parvat
i that his arrival at the magicians' ghetto had been motivated by a desire
to be done with the rich bitches of Indian high society; that he had been b