So you all have probably heard the name Salman Rushdie before, and heard of the controversy of his book "Satanic Verses" in the Muslim community. "Midnight's Children" is another book by the genius Rushdie that incorporates his view on the politics of India-Pakistan partition, martial law, Indira Gandhi and other aspects of politics in early India through the mind/eyes of the character Saleem. Ok, Ok enough of the book report, let me get down to the good stuff....
What I got out of my reading of Midnight's Children was not all of that polititcs nonsense that is usually convoluted with someone elses opinions anyways (which can then be refuted elsewhere), what I got were a few truths about life and a bunch of inspirational tid-bits throughout the book:
1. Religion - and the lack there of in the intellectual realm
---> when Aadam Aziz comes back to Kashmir after being in Germany for years on end, he finds himself caught in the middle of believing his faith and disbelieving it. This is because he has come into contact with the western world and therefore has engrossed in himself the intelligence that we perceive about religion as a method of instilling order and righteousness in ones life rather than as a supreme faith that clouds the minds of all, all the time. He doesn't find himself as a disbeliever, but rather as one that cannot disprove or prove religion's value. Religion has its value in ordering and providing us with guidelines throughby which we should live peaceful harmonious lives. Just like anything that is used out of proportion, religion can lead us to the demise of our own lives by ruling out any other possibility of values/morals and standing as a meaning to life rather than a guide to life. Hence.... Religion is a Guide not a MEANING TO LIFE
2. History - can we believe it or not?
-----> What is history? history is a set of facts, or what we perceive to be factual based on the writings and knowledge that has been passed on throughout time. And history is only remembered if people WRITE IT DOWN, therefore the history that is WRITTEN DOWN is the only form of connection we have to the past... who knows the person that wrote about the war of 63 b.c. or the gold mines in 700 a.d. in gagalagooga may have just written a story based on his imagination, but never remembered to say that it was just a story... or we can't perceive it as a story because we have no way of doing so... who the hell knows what is real history or not... and why does it even matter? Do we really need to know what happened in the past? Isn't our present the only thing that matters, the only thing we have an affect on? Ok I'm going to stop rambling... but I'll continue to post more tomorrow
Tags: Salman Rushdie
, Midnights Children Satanic verses