The Enchanting Tale of
Salman Rushdie
Sneak Peek at Salman
Rushdie
Salman Rushdie is a world renowned novelist
and proud recipient of two prestigious booker
prizes, one best of the booker and one booker of
bookers. His novels are usually a combination
of historical fiction, and magical realism,
spinning vivid tales rich in the imagination. In
addition to novels, Rushdie has published a fair
amount of essays and other non-fiction.
Chapter 1
The Start of
Salman
Rushdie
Once upon a time... June 19, 1947 to be precise
In a city called Mumbai , a part of the larger
subcontinent known as India, a writer was born. This
little writer was to be named Salman Rushdie. As this
little writer grew up, his beloved parents Anis and
Negin Rushdie, filled his head with wondrous tales,
full of exquisite princesses of Arabia, and murderous
tyrants overthrown.
As a child Salman was always happy, full of joy and bursting with creativity, but as all
parents do Anis and Negin wanted what was best for their child, and so when the little writer
grew into a teenage writer, they decided that what was best for him, was to have him shipped
him off to Rugby School, a British private school where he could earn a future.
Moving to England on his own wasn’t as hard as most of us
would think. Salman was nervous about being in a new country
by himself, but he was glad to finally leave his alcoholic father
and submissive mother. However this gladness quickly turned
into bitter resentment
You see dear reader, Salman
made the three most
unforgivable mistakes a boy
going to an English boarding
school in the 60’s could make,
1) he was a foreigner, 2) he
was too clever and 3) he was
not athletic .
This unfortunate combination resulted in his high school
years being unpleasant and far from joyous
Chapter 2
Growing Up
Adult life was the Start of
something new...
Like his father before him Salman also
attended Cambridge University,
however unlike his father, Salman
refused to major in economics, choosing
instead to master in history. After a brief
incident with an English Literature
Professor Anis Rushdie (Salman's Dad)
decided history was an acceptable career
path.
Contrary to the dreaded Rugby School,
Salman grew to enjoy Cambridge and
the delightful people in it. He realized
that there were nicer people in England
and places where racism did not exist.
Just like every other young adult Salman wanted to enjoy life, especially life
outside his native country. He did not take life seriously and had no real
profession in mind. After a brief career as an actor he worked as a free-lance
advertising copywriter. Although it paid the bills, it was not the life Salman had
envisioned for himself.
Salman always wanted to be a writer and considering the
fact that you are here listening to this presentation he was
obviously quite successful.
His books are an integral part of him and
interweave themselves into his life. The only
real way to measure Salman’s growth is
through his books.
Chapter 3
The Brilliant books
that behaved
themselves and
decided not to cause
pandemonium.
Grimus
Salman Published his first
book Grimus In 1975 It is
the story of Flapping
Eagle, a Native American
who is given the gift of
immortality and goes on a
journey to find the
meaning of life, despite
receiving positive
feedback it did not
become popular. Salman
continued writing and his
next book became a
phenomenon.
Midnight’s Children...
Midnight’s Children released in 1981. It became an International Sensation and
his greatest success, it won a booker prize and went on to win a best of the
booker as well as a booker of bookers. Furthermore it was Salman’s claim to
fame, gone was the little boy, bullied and misunderstood.
The book pertains to India’s transition
from British Rule into Independence
through the protagonist who was born at
the moment of India’s independence.
He also wrote...
Published in 1983
Published in 1987
Published in 1990
Published in 1995
Published in 1999
Published in 2001
Published in 2005
Published in 2008
Luka and the Fire of Life
Luka and the
fire of life was
released in 2010
and won a
booker prize it
encompasses
various themes
on the quest for
a healing elixir.
Published in 2012
Chapter 4
A Book that
Birthed Chaos
Before we continue my dear
listener you must
understand that the majority
of his books are loaded with
controversies, and target
religion and politics. Salman
Rushdie is quite fond of
controversies.
The Satanic Verses
The Satanic verses took the world by a storm and
demonstrated the political impact of a book.
The Satanic
Verses opens with the
survival of two Indian
men who fall out of the
sky after their plane to
England is blown up in
midair by terrorists.
These two characters
then gain divine and
demonic powers while
another character in the
novel is a writer
sentenced to death by a
religious leader.
To some extent these events are true. However it
is startling to discover that The Satanic Verses
was written before these events could occur.
The Satanic verses angered quite a
few Muslims who deemed it
blasphemous (it was quite
blasphemous) some of them were
very powerful especially Iranian
leader Ayatollah Ruhollah
Khomeini, who was so offended
and insulted he issued a fatwa (kill
order) against Rushdie. Rushdie
went into hiding and was under the
protection of her majesty and
British security guards. Many
countries banned The Satanic verses
in support of the Muslim
leaders..This sparked international
debate about how the freedom of
speech doesn’t really exist. Salman
had many supporters willing to read
the book and fight for intellectual
freedom.
Rushdie pointed out "It's very simple in this country, If you don't want to
read a book, you don't have to read it. It's very hard to be offended by The
Satanic Verses - it requires a long period of intense reading. It's a quarter
of a million words.“ Iran rebutted this by reminding him given the first
chance they would gladly kill him.
To most westerners a threat based on religion is not taken seriously, but that is because the
majority of the western populace separates politics from religion. In the middle east politics
and religion remain intertwined. In reality Rushdie’s book was not the reason for global
uproar, it was as always-politics. The Iranian government simply wanted to demonstrate to
the Saudi government the power they exerted globally over Islam. To be quite honest Iran
does exert a lot of power, their power extended all the way into Britain where copies were
burned and bookstores trashed, the British Muslims went as far as to send their own death
threats. Salman was merely a pawn in Iran’s political game and unfairly suffered 9 years in
hiding for it.
The severity of the threat was such that the
religious fanatic Mustafa Mahmoud Mazeh
accidentally blew himself up in hotel room while
creating bomb intended to kill Rushdie.
Those nine years were terrible for Salman he was forced to
live in almost isolation. To top it off the British media
enjoyed mocking him while he was in hiding and he could
not deny their allegations lest the Iranians find him.
Rushdie was not allowed to travel often and when he did it was
surrounded by round the clock armed bodyguards. Even his once
beloved British Airways abandoned him saying he was a threat to
safety. The fatwa had taken everything from him.
As time continued the Rushdie affair became a battle of societal views. The British
government with Margaret Thatcher leading the way was annoyed with Rushdie and allowed
him minimal freedom and consistently reminded him what a burden he was. This
unreasonable behaviour hindered progress in resolving the issue. With the changing of
Prime Ministers, a change in the wind hit the Rushdie Affair, Tony Blair gave Rushdie much
more freedom and after Rushdie’s apology to Islam was not accepted, people began to
understand the severity of the situation.
Simply speaking The Satanic Verses did not actually offend Islam directly.
Much of Islam decided to take it personally and created a ruckus. This
ruckus was senseless considering the fact that most of the anti Rushdie
supporters did not really know what the book dealt with and were fighting
simply because they were told too. These actions are the primary flaw with
sheep like mentality, it results in a molehill becoming a mountain.
It is really depressing to realize that it took the world nine years to realize their stupidity in
censoring literature. The purpose of literature is to question, Rushdie is not the first person
who had to fight for his freedom of speech. Our society is a place where we preach about
freedom of speech yet if something does not conform to our thoughts it is wrong. Rushdie
changed this into I will write what I want to write and I don't really care what you think.
He has set an example to others about writing without fear. The fatwa did not prevent him
from writing he has continued to publish successful stories.
Chapter 5
Cause and effect
When an unsuspecting tragedy occurs it changes
our perspective on life. It changes our values and
rewrites who we are. Being an author not only
does it change who you are but it changes how you
write and what you write about. After the fatwa
was lifted Salman's style of writing changed
He began to cherish life through his books and
embrace freedom. In Luka and the Fire of Life we
begin to see just how important life is, Luka enters
a new dimension simply to save one life.
At the same time his writing also became more cynical and
depressing not in the sense that his stories were depressing,
but the way his characters saw things. His characters became
pessimistic optimists.
This does not mean his quality of writing
diminished but quite the opposite. Like wine
with age he has only improved.
Chapter 6
The family that
shaped him
Anis Rushdie
Anis Rushdie Salman’s dad played an interesting role in
Salman’s life his first gift to his son was the last name
Rushdie, that was not his original last name but he
changed it to represent the new life he created for his
family. Although Anis initially did not support a career
in writing, he was always secretly Salman’s biggest fan.
It is sad to think that Salman didn’t know this until Anis
was on his death bed.
Negin Rushdie
Negin Rushdie Salman’s mom plays more of a behind the
scenes role, it was she who once an atheist returned to Islam
and went home to Pakistan. Although Salman himself remains
an atheist he admires her unwavering faith. She loved him and
supported him all his life and continues to do so today.
The three sisters
Salman was the only boy in the family among three
sisters and growing up in a different country from
them distanced them. Nevertheless they’ve supported
Salman throughout everything, sometimes going
against their own husbands to do so.
Chapter 7
The Many Wives in
Rushdie’s Time
Alive
Clarissa Luard
Clarissa was Salman’s first wife, and their marriage lasted the
longest. He married her in 1976 and they were divorced in 1987. She
was a sweet-tempered stubborn woman who loved Salman even
after their divorce. Clarissa and Salman had one son Zafar who
they both loved dearly. Sadly in 1999 Clarissa lost the battle to
cancer and passed away. Salman was there for her till the end.
Marianne Wiggins
(a.k.a the wicked witch)
Marianne Wiggins is Salman’s second wife. He married
her in 1988 and she divorced him in 1993. She is also a
novelist and this lead to her jealousy over Salman’s
success. After the divorce Marianne was still bitter and
spent her time spoiling Rushdie’s reputation through the
British media.
Elizabeth West
Salman married Elizabeth 1997, and he loved
dearly. They had one son Milan, unfortunately their
marriage did not work out and they were divorced
in 2004.
Padma
Lakshmi
In 2004 Salman made another mistake he married Padma
Lakshmi an Indian-American model, actress and host of top
chef From the start it was clear the pair was mismatched, not
only in looks but also personality wise and it came as no
surprise when their marriage ended in 2004
After going through four failed marriages
Salman has decided to longer marry, he still
remains open to a relationship but marriage is
out of the question.
Chapter 8
The man behind
the droopy eyes
is...
Freakishly Intelligent
Witty
Sarcastic
And slightly Insane
He’s basically your everyday jerk but he’s a pretty
brilliant jerk so it is somehow justified.
Chapter 9
Society is foolish and
must categorize its
citizens based on their
beliefs and so because
you are society and you
must know these are
they
Religion played a huge role in Salman’s life but not in the way you may
think. He was born a Muslim but as said by Salman “God, Satan,
Paradise, and Hell all vanished one day in my fifteenth year, when I quite
abruptly lost my faith. … and afterwards, to prove my new-found atheism,
I bought myself a rather tasteless ham sandwich, and so partook for the
first time of the forbidden flesh of the swine. No thunderbolt arrived to
strike me down. … From that day to this I have thought of myself as a
wholly secular person”
Salman moves around a lot and so instead of
participating in politics he creates politics as
we discovered through the Satanic Verses.
Salman does however believe in separation
from church and state and tighter gun control
laws.
Salman has additionally expressed his irritation with the veil
worn by Islamic women saying “I think the battle against the
veil has been a long and continuing battle against the limitation
of women.”
Chapter 10
The author that lives
Rushdie now lives in the United States, where he
works as a professor at Emory University, in
addition to writing new novels.
If you have not already come to the conclusion that Salman Rushdie is an
interesting man here are some details to enlighten you.
In 1999, Rushdie had an operation to correct ptosis,
a tendon condition that causes drooping eyelids
and that, according to him, was making it
increasingly difficult for him to open his eyes. "If I
hadn't had an operation, in a couple of years from
now I wouldn't have been able to open my eyes at
all."
On June 16 2007 Salman was knighted for his services
to British literature by the queen. Technically we
should be calling him sir Salman Rushdie.
Well my dear listeners it
appears we have reached
the end of
this tale, i hope it amused
you, or at least did not
bore you,
farewell for now.
The End.