Summary: Hit-the-Spittoon
Saleem claims that his body—worn down by time, history,
and fatigue—will soon break into hundreds of millions of pieces.
He describes how he makes his living making chutney and other condiments
and how Padma prepares his food and bed in the factory. Being impotent,
Saleem can’t respond to Padma’s sexual advances.
Saleem returns to his family history, jumping ahead to
the summer of 1942. Aadam and Naseem now live on Cornwallis Road,
in Agra, and have five children: Alia, Mumtaz, Hanif, Mustapha,
and Emerald. Naseem has become a formidable figure with age and
is now generally referred to as Reverend Mother. She has also developed
a verbal habit of referring to things as whatsitsname.
Saleem recounts a story of how, in the early 1930s, Naseem became
furious with Aadam for dismissing the children’s religion tutor,
whom he felt was teaching the children to hate people of other faiths. Incensed,
Naseem refuses to feed Aadam, waiting until he’s almost dead of
hunger before she relents.
Back in 1942, Aadam has aligned himself with a charismatic
man named Mian Abdullah, also known as the Hummingbird. Abdullah heads
the Free Islam Convocation, which opposes the creation of a separate
Muslim state. One day, during a visit to a university campus with
his personal secretary, Nadir Khan, Mian Abdullah is attacked by
a band of assassins. When the assassins begin to cut him with their
knives, Abdullah starts to hum, the pitch growing increasingly higher.
One of the killers’ eyes shatters and falls out of its socket; the
surrounding windows shatter as well. Dogs throughout Bombay hear
the Hummingbird and rush to the scene, injuring the assassins to
such a degree that the murders are rendered unrecognizable. Mian
Abdullah dies, but Nadir Khan manages to escape and, finding Rashid
the rickshaw boy in the field surrounding Doctor Aziz’s house, pleads
with Rashid to notify Aadam of the situation.
Summary: Under the Carpet
The period of optimism that Mian Abdullah inspired ends
with his assassination. The Rani of Cooch Naheen, one of Abdullah’s
allies, takes to her bed, while Aadam puts his energy into treating
the poor. One day, while using the bathroom, Aadam is startled to
find Nadir Khan hiding in the laundry bin. Aadam agrees to provide
him sanctuary, despite his wife’s protests and concerns for their
daughters’ purity. In retaliation, Naseem promises never to speak
again, and silence descends upon the house.
Several suitors line up for the three Aziz daughters,
including Major Zulfikar, an official in the Pakistani army; Nadir
Khan, who lives hidden in the Aziz basement; and Ahmed Sinai. Mumtaz, Aadam’s
favorite daughter and the darkest-skinned of all the children, tends
to Nadir Khan. The two fall in love without ever exchanging a word,
and Nadir asks Aadam for his daughter’s hand in marriage. The family
arranges a secret marriage between the two. Afterward, Mumtaz happily
moves into the basement, returning to the upper floors by day to
preserve the secrecy of her husband’s concealment.
The Rani of Cooch Naheen dies, her skin having turned
completely white, and bequeaths a silver spittoon to the Aziz family. Mumtaz
falls ill, and, while giving her a check-up, Aadam discovers that
after two years of marriage Mumtaz remains a virgin. Upon hearing
the news, Naseem ends her three years of silence, releasing a torrent
of abusive words at her husband. Saleem notes that this occurred
on the same day that America dropped the atomic bomb on Japan: August
9, 1945. Emerald runs out of the house and tells her suitor, Major
Zulfikar, that Nadir Khan is living in her basement. Nadir Khan
flees, leaving a note for Mumtaz that reads, “I divorce you.”
