Theme: New Englishes – Focus on India 

Text: Excerpt from: Salman Rushdie – Midnight Children (1981) 

“Everything?" Amina Sinai asked. "I can't even throw away a spoon? Allah, that lampshade ...I can't get rid of one comb?" 

"Lock, stock and barrel," Methwold said, "Those are my terms. A whim, Mr Sinai ...you'll permit a departing colonial his little game? We don't have much left to do, we British, except to play our games."

"Listen now, listen, Amina," Ahmed is saying later on, "You want to stay in this hotel room for ever? It's a fantastic price; fantastic, absolutely. And what can he do after he's transferred the deeds? Then you can throw out any lampshade you like: It's less than two months ..." 

"You'll take a cocktail in the garden?" Methwold is saying, "Six o'clock every evening. Cocktail hour. Never varied in twenty years." 

"But my God, the paint ...and the cupboards are full of old clothes, janum ...we'll have to live out of suitcases, there's nowhere to put one suit!" 

"Bad business, Mr Sinai," Methwold sips his Scotch amid cacti and roses, "Never seen the like. Hundreds of years of decent government, then suddenly, up and off. You'll admit we weren't all bad: built your roads. Schools, railway trains, parliamentary system, all worthwhile things. Taj Mahal was falling down until an Englishman bothered to see to it. And now, suddenly, independence. Seventy days to get out. I'm dead against it myself, but what's to be done?" 

"... And look at the stains on the carpets, janum; for two months we must live like those Britishers? You've looked in the bathrooms? No water near the pot. I never believed, but it's true, my God, they wipe their bottoms with paper only! ….” 

"Tell me, Mr Methwold," Ahmed Sinai's voice has changed, in the presence of an Englishman it has become a hideous mockery of an Oxford drawl, "why insist on the delay? Quick sale is best business, after all. Get the thing buttoned up." 

"... And pictures of old Englishwomen everywhere, baba! No place to hang my own father's photo on the wall! …..” 

"It seems, Mr Sinai," Mr Methwold is refilling the glasses as the sun dives towards the Arabian Sea behind the Breach Candy pool, "that beneath this stiff English exterior lurks a mind with a very Indian lust for allegory." 

"And drinking so much, janum ...that's not good." 

"I'm not sure -Mr Methwold, ah -what exactly you mean by..." 

"... Oh, you know: after a fashion, I'm transferring power, too. Got a sort of itch to do it at the same time the Raj does. As I said: a game. Humour me, won't you, Sinai? After all: the price, you've admitted, isn't bad." 

"Has his brain gone raw, janum? What do you think: is it safe to do bargains if he's loony?" 

"Now listen, wife," Ahmed Sinai is saying, "this has gone on long enough. Mr Methwold is a fine man; a person of breeding; a man of honour; I will not have his name ...And besides, the other purchasers aren't making so much noise, I'm sure ...Anyway, I have told him yes, so there's an end to it." (516W) 

Annotations: 

Introductory remark: Saleem Sinai tells the story of how Mr. Methwold is selling his house to his parents Ahmet and Amina Sinai before his birth. Vocabulary: 6 deeds – document, contract 10 janum - literally an endearment translated as 'my life' 14 Taj Mahal - world famous 17th-century mausoleum in Agra, India 23 baba – father (in Hindi) 26 Breach Candy pool - a favourite resort with (British) troops stationed in Bombay 30 itch – desire 31 Raj – British rule over India 

Assignments. 

1) How does the house-sale develop in this excerpt? Put emphasis on the role of the different characters in your answer. 

2) Take a closer look at the way Rushdie presents events to add further meaning to the contents. (Name literary devices and explain their function in the context.) 

3) In what way is this excerpt suited for analysis as part of a course on New Englishes (Focus on India)?