Theme: New Englishes – Focus on India 

Text: Excerpt from: Salman Rushdie – Midnight Children 

  

"My notion," Mr Methwold explains, staring at the setting sun, "is to stage my own transfer of assets. Leave behind everything you see? Select suitable persons - such as yourself, Mr Sinai! -hand everything over absolutely intact: in tiptop working order. Look around you: everything's in fine fettle, don't you agree? Tickety- boo, we used to say. Or, as you say in Hindustani: Sabkuch ticktock hai. Everything's just fine." 

"Nice people are buying the houses," Ahmed offers Amina his handkerchief, "nice new neighbours ...that Mr Homi Catrack in Versailles Villa, Parsee chap, but a racehorse-owner. Produces films and all. And the Ibrahims in Sans Souci, Nussie Ibrahim is having a baby, too, you can be friends ...And the old man Ibrahim, with so-big sisal farms in Africa. Good family." 

"... And afterwards I can do what I like with the house? …..” 

"Yes, afterwards, naturally, he'll be gone ..." 

"... It's all worked out excellently," William Methwold says. "Did you know my ancestor was the chap who had the idea of building this whole city? Sort of Raffles of Bombay. As his descendant, at this important juncture, I feel the, I don't know, need to play my part. Yes, excellently... when d'you move in? Say the word and I'll move off to the Taj Hotel. Tomorrow? Excellent. Sabkuch ticktock hai." [...] 

...There are thirty days to go to the transfer of power and Lila Sabarmati is on the telephone, "How can you stand it, Nussie? In every room here there are talking budgies, and in the almirahs I find moth-eaten dresses and used brassieres!" ...And Nussie is telling Amina, "Goldfish, Allah, I can't stand the creatures, but Methwold sahib comes himself to feed... and there are half-empty pots of Bovril he says I can't throw... it's mag, Amina sister, what are we doing like this?" ...And old man Ibrahim is refusing to switch on the ceiling fan in his bedroom, muttering, "That machine will fall - it will slice my head off in the night -how long can something so heavy stick on a ceiling?" ...and Homi Catrack who is something of an ascetic is obliged to lie on a large soft mattress, he is suffering from backache and sleeplessness and the dark rings of inbreeding around the eyes are being circled by the whorls of insomnia, and his bearer tells him, "No wonder the foreign sahibs have all gone away, sahib, they must be dying to get some sleep." But they are all sticking it out; and there are advantages as well as problems. Listen to Lila Sabarmati ("That one - too beautiful to be good," my mother said) ..."A pianola, Amina sister! And it works! All day I'm sitting sitting, playing God knows what-all! 'Pale Hands I Loved Beside The Shalimar' ...such fun, too much, you just push the pedals!"... And Ahmed Sinai finds a cocktail cabinet in Buckingham Villa (which was Methwold's own house before it was ours); he is discovering the delights of fine Scotch whisky and cries, "So what? Mr Methwold is a little eccentric, that's all- can we not humour him? With our ancient civilization, can we not be as civilized as he?" ...and he drains his glass at one go. (536W) 

  

Annotations: 

Introductory remark: Saleem Sinai narrates how his parents Ahmet and Amina Sinai, family members, friends and neighbours like the houses Mr. Methwold is selling. Vocabulary: 1 assets - entire property owned by a person 3 fettle – proper and sound condition 4 tickety- boo – often used by British Army personnel 7 Parsse - member of a Zoroastrian religious sect in India, descended from Persians 9 sisal – plant cultivated for its large leaves that are used to make ropes 13 Raffles of Bombay - Raffles, Sir Thomas Stamford. 1781-1826. British colonial administrator who acquired Singapore for the East India Company (1819) and founded a settlement there. 17 almirah – wood cabinet 19 sahib - respectful address for a European man in colonial India ; Bovril – [trademark] used in Britain to make a drink 28 ‘Pale Hands …’ – song title 

Assignments: 

1) What do the new Indian owners like about the houses that sahib Methwold is selling, what do they dislike? 

2) Work on details of the text that have a meaning that goes beyond the literal level. (Name literary devices in the process.) 

3) Comment on the way Rushdie describes the relationship between Britain and India in the present excerpt.