Reading Notes W17: The Perforated Sheet

Saleem is born in the city of Bombay at midnight in a Nursing home on August 15th, 1947.  The date of his birth was when India and Pakistan became separate nations and the author is stating that he has been handcuffed to history, while his destiny is indissolubly chained to those of his country (1132). He opens with once upon a time… taking us back to the beginning of his tale. 
It seems that he feels like his life has been empty and without accomplishment, so he must tell stories to leave a legacy for himself. “Now, however, time (having no further use for me) is running out. He feels absurdity.
He recalls a story of his grandfather who gave up his religion (Islam we can assume since the mentioning of the Quran) and traveled to fill the void he felt on the inside only to have filled up hole in his heart with hate. Its funny, and noteworthy to mention, that he vows to not pray because he pumps his nose on the ground and three drops of blood appeared.  I don’t know if this is because his nose represented what he learned from Tai that it was where the outside world meets the world inside you, and that his nose was a great gift. 
On the grandfathers journey he comes across Tai, a boatman, it seems that Saleem’s grandfather when he was younger fell in love with the boat man Tai because he was infatuated by the magical and foolish stories told by Tai.
He is told by Tai in 1915 that the landlords daughter is sick and that Saleem’s young grandfather was supposed to go tend to her.  When he arrived, the sight was more remarkable than he ever witnessed: “two more women, also built like professional wrestlers, stood stiffly in the light, each holding one corner of an enormous white bedsheet, their arms raised high above their heads so that the sheet hung between them like a curtain” (1141). In the center of the sheet a hole was cut about seven inches in diameter. Which is the first mention of the title “(perforated sheet) mentioned. The author suggests that his grandfather was hunted by what can be described as a sorcerer’s spell of the perforated sheet. Viewing Naseem body parts over the years through the hole of the sheet, tending and curing different each one over the years. He was falling in love with her because she moved into the living room of his mind, filling the void he had from renouncing his religion. He did not realize that it was the Ghani’s plan all along for the doctor and his daughter to fall in love. In the end, his plan succeeded.

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