Midnight’s Children: Book 1: Mercurochrome Summary & Analysis

Saleem introduces his companion, Padma, an uneducated and illiterate woman. Padma, whose name roughly translate to “The One Who Possesses Dung,” works as a cook, and she spends much time cooking for Saleem and urging him, unsuccessfully, to eat. Padma is independent and direct, and fiercely loyal to Saleem, who describes her as a “bitch-in-the-manger.”

Saleem continues writing his story, again making reference to Scheherazade. He begins with Aadam and his mother, who resents her son’s visits to examine Naseem. Mr. Ghani has taken to summoning Aadam weekly to assess his daughter’s myriad of minor complaints—such as constipation, an ingrown toenail, and a twisted ankle—and Aadam’s mother believes she is sick only because she is spoiled. She attempts to make Aadam feel guilty for running to Naseem so frequently—and ignoring his own sick mother in the process.

For three years, as the Great War rages on far away from Kashmir, Aadam falls in love with Naseem through the perforated sheet, despite his mother’s protests. Aadam’s mother is convinced that Naseem’s illnesses are Mr. Ghani’s attempts to marry his daughter to a doctor, but Aadam is helpless. Naseem soon complains of breast lumps and a pulled muscle in her upper thigh, and Aadam must examine these intimate areas via the hole in the sheet. He knows that his feelings are unprofessional, but the perforated sheet has become “something sacred and magical,” and his love for Naseem begins to fill the hole created when he hit his nose on the prayer-mat.

On the day World War I ends, Naseem complains of a headache, and Aadam is finally able to see her face through the perforated sheet. When Aadam lays eyes on Naseem’s face, his “fall is complete.” Naseem comments only on the size of Aadam’s nose, and Mr. Ghani smiles, pleased with himself.

In the meantime, Tai, the old boatman refuses to bathe or change his clothes. He repeatedly floats his boat past the Aadam’s home, causing the flowers to die, and when the villagers who hire his services ask him to bathe, he tells them to ask “that German Aziz.” The villagers begin to blame Aadam for Tai’s offensive odor, and his business suffers because of it. Aadam begins to believe that Tai is trying to chase him out of town.

Aadam’s father falls ill and dies, and his mother follows shortly after. Ilse Lubin comes to Kashmir to visit Aadam and tells him that her husband, Oskar, was stuck by a car during a protest and killed. Aadam is awarded a job at Agra University, and he sells his family’s home and the gemstone business.

Aadam asks Mr. Ghani for Naseem’s hand in marriage, and he is happy to oblige. Aadam runs to tell Ilse the good news but can’t find her. She has taken Tai’s ferry to the part of Dal Lake where foreign women go to drown and is soon found dead. Aadam blames Tai, who quickly falls ill (and refuses to be examined by Dr. Aziz).

Aadam and Naseem are married, and the perforated sheet is utilized on their wedding night, providing proof of their union during the consummation ceremony the next day in the form of three drops of blood. Aadam and Naseem begin to ready themselves to move to Agra for Aadam’s new job. As Saleem writes, he recalls finding the perforated sheet in a trunk while searching for a ghost costume as a child. He puts on the sheet, and both Aadam and Naseem respond angrily. Padma insists that Saleem read his story out loud to her as he writes.

Saleem flashes back to 1919, where Aadam is in the city of Amritsar. The busy city streets are a far cry from the quiet Kashmiri village, and Naseem is having a difficult time adjusting. Aadam’s nose begins to itch, and he senses something is wrong.

Aadam and Naseem are stuck in a hotel in Amritsar because the trains are not running on account of Mahatma Gandhi’s hartal, and Naseem is growing increasingly irritated with the inconvenience. Aadam notices a young Indian soldier taking part in the hartal and comments that the Rowlatt act (which declared a state of emergency in British India) is a mistake. He reflects on his Kashmiri identity, noting that he feels differently than other Indians, and he is unsure if the hartal is his fight.

Meanwhile, Naseem is upset because Aadam has asked her to “move a little” during sex and has told her to come out of purdah. Naseem views her husband’s sexual desires and his support of unveiling as a direct result of his Western education. Angrily, Aadam gathers all of Naseem’s veils and sets fire to them in a garbage can, setting much of the hotel room ablaze. After the fire is out, he tells Naseem to stop being “a good Kashmiri girl” and start “being a modern Indian woman.”

During the hartal, Aadam remains in Amritsar treating those injured by rioting mobs in the street. He bandages wounds and applies Mercurochrome, which stains his clothes red. Naseem mistakes the Mercurochrome for blood, and when Aadam corrects her, she becomes irritated, claiming that she isn’t stupid and has read several books.

As public tension rises in Amritsar, Martial Law is declared and Aadam refuses to leave in case more people need his help. He happens upon a peaceful protest, and his nose begins to itch. Brigadier R. E. Dyer arrives at the protest accompanied by fifty troops, and Aadam feels a sneeze forming. As Aadam sneezes, he loses his balance and drops his medical bag, the contents spilling onto the street. Aadam crawls around, attempting to save his equipment, as Brigadier Dyer orders his troops to open fire on the protestors.

As bodies fall dead onto Aadam, the metal clasp of his bag digs into his chest, leaving a severe bruise that Saleem notes does not fade until after his grandfather’s death many, many years later. When the shooting stops and Aadam is able to return to Naseem, he is covered in blood—which she mistakes for Mercurochrome. Naseem faints when Aadam corrects her and tells her it is blood.

Saleem notes that his skin is beginning to crack, and he knows that his death is near. He thinks about Tai, who recovered from his mysterious illness only to be shot dead years later while protesting India and Pakistan’s dispute over the territory of Kashmir in 1947.