Shalimar the Clown
Fiction is the most suitable and convenient vehicle to convey reality! Whoever believes it or not, Salman believes it the most. Through his books, be brings to limelight the most compelling stories that remained hidden in the crevices of history, by the force of his gopher like digging nature!
That a global network of terror can operate for taking personal revenges of lust behind the screen of bombastic claims of freedom fighting can be a main theme only in fiction!
Death is the biggest drama of life! A woman and a weapon are the necessary and sufficient characters for the drama! Here the weapon is a sabatier knife and the woman who inflamed the revenge is Bhoomi!
Bhoomi,whose deliberate detachment from her education was rooted in her erotic self-image that she knew everything she would need, to get men to do whatever she wanted! The other likely victim is India! Not much to guess about where the allegory leads?! The symbol of sovereignty is aiming for 100 percent security but security being a matter of proportions can never be 100 percent!
Salman’s power and depth of perception is evident in the dramatic irony, that the oversexed girl has lost her attraction to her illicit partner- in -lust, the first moment she saw his expression changing from usual silliness to seriousness, and snatches herself away, but the partner, with his flesh burning in lust, pursues for revenge ‘of those who snatched away his love!’ This is another of Salman’s easy to read deeply enthralling mystery, without his eccentric tricks or extensive magical realism, fairly straightforward, though he tries once to mimic the strange style of speaking of Pandit Gopinath!
This is a vast painting of a tale of improbable destiny, with a plot of formidable physical, cultural and economic distances, to link the elitest of Europe to the remotest dancing tribes of Kashmir! Read this to compare and find out how much an author can contribute to understanding of many things that matter, like life, people, world and the Universe!
Midnight’s Children
Salman Rushdie weaves this allegorical fantasy of the life of the children born around the hour of Indian freedom, who are somehow endowed with special powers to sense the events around them. Narrated through Salim, the one born exactly at the midnight hour and hence has the maximum power, it traces the history of India and Pakistan and their forever troubled relations over Kashmir. He believes that he represents every individual of India and whatever happens affects him and also the things happen because of him and the other midnight children. For example, the India Pakistan war of 1965 was fought indirectly only to eliminate his family because of his special power disturbs Indira Gandhi.
This book became a Booker winning classic and a perennial top seller not only for the story but mainly for the way it is told. The events of Indian history since independence are told not factually but as it makes sense and coherence in the life of the midnight children. It’s a story to be devoured by connoisseurs of exotic story telling for its unparalleled style and narrative mystery.
The Enchantress Of Florence
Salman’ s most researched book, which took years and years of reading, is his best for those who do not consider Midnight’s Children for the top honour. This book unravels a mystery of mysteries or a mystery inside a mystery inside a mystery. A young European man wants to meet Akbar and claims to be his own uncle. Piqued by shock, surprise and curiosity, the entire court suspects him to be an assassin or a spy and puts him on the watch. Now comes the saga of perfume saloons where they apply eight layers of perfume for someone to meet the emperor, one for impressing the public on the way, one for the security, one for the minister, one for the emperor himself and so on.
Imagine the height of perfume technology five centuries ago when today’s world is not even aware of the power of perfumes to persuade and impress, from the ordinary public to the emperor. While tracing the mystery behind the youth, the story weaves back and forth between continents breathtakingly unraveling even more minor and major mysteries.
History does exist up to the point that Babur indeed had a sister who likely had eloped with a military chief from Florence and lost touch with Babur. Beyond that it dreams around in a magical world with incredibility as the hallmark. The ancient concept of using a person’s body as a memory storage, like our USB stick, is described in captivating and implementable detail. This is Salman’s easy to read masterpiece, even if you have to pick just one from his formidable bouquet on offer.