Summary: Accident in a Washing-chest
Padma has stormed out on Saleem because he compares the
writing of his narrative to the recording of the sacred Hindu text
the Ramayana by the elephant god Ganesh.
Saleem continues the story in the summer of 1956 when
his sister, the Brass Monkey, began burning shoes, perhaps to force
people to notice her. Starved for attention, she is a mischievous
child, prone to breaking windows, spreading lies, and lashing out
at anyone who shows her affection.
By the time he reaches the age of nine, Saleem becomes
acutely aware of the expectations surrounding him. In order to escape
the fear of failure, he hides in his mother’s large white washing
chest. He begins to attend school with his friends from the compound,
Eyeslice, Hairoil, Sonny Ibrahim, and Cyrus-the-great. His early growth
spurt has stopped, but his nose, full of snot, continues to grow.
He seeks refuge from the insults and names in the washing chest,
where his imagination is free to roam. Years later in Pakistan, just
before a roof crushes his mother, Amina, she sees the washing chest
one more time in a vision. Saleem says that a black fog of guilt began
to surround his mother so that on some days it was impossible to
see her from the neck up. Her own sense of guilt brings other people’s
confessions out. Saleem says that the afternoon phone calls from
her ex-husband, Nadir Khan, are the real reason for his mother’s
guilt.
One afternoon, while Saleem seeks refuge in the washing
chest, his mother receives another phone call. Unaware of Saleem,
she goes to the bathroom and begins to sob, repeating the name of
her ex-husband. She takes off her saris to use the bathroom, unwittingly exposing
her naked rump to Saleem. His nose twitches, he sniffs, and his
mother discovers him hiding in the washing chest. She punishes him
to one day of silence. During that quiet day, Saleem begins to hear
voices rattling in his head, which he compares to the divine voices
heard by Mohammed and Moses. The next day, he tells the entire family
that angels are speaking to him. Everyone grows angry with Saleem,
and his father hits him so hard that Saleem permanently loses some
hearing in his left ear. Later that evening, however, Amina remembers
the words of Ramram, the prophet, who told her, “washing will hide
him . . . .voices will guide him.” She asks Saleem about the voices
again, but he claims it was all just a joke, and she dies, nine
years later, without ever knowing the truth.
Summary: All India Radio
Padma’s continued absence haunts Saleem, making him uncertain about
the accuracy of his narrative. He acknowledges that he made a mistake
about the date of Gandhi’s death, but it no longer matters since
his story will continue nonetheless. He lists the similarities between
himself in the present and the Saleem of the past. He says the voices
are gone now, but the heat remains.
During the summer of 1956, language marches fill the city streets,
with protesters demanding that Bombay be partitioned along linguistic
lines, dividing the Marathi speakers from the Gujrati speakers.
At the same time, various languages and voices fill Saleem’s head.
The voices are not angels, but telepathy. Beneath the teeming babble
of different languages, Saleem says he could hear a purer, intelligible
thought-form, greater than words. Saleem also hears the voice of
the other midnight’s children—initially far-off and faint—stating
simply, “I.” Still afraid of his father’s wrath, Saleem keeps these
voices a secret. Saleem puts his power in a historical context,
noting that at the time of his discovery, India was developing its Five-Year
Plan. He also explains that instead of using his gift for the betterment
of the country, he cheated in his classes, kept his gift a secret,
and essentially frittered it away.
