Midnight’s Children: Book 2: Movements Performed by Pepperpots Summary & Analysis

After Mary’s confession, Saleem begins to avoid the Midnight Children’s Conference. He is convinced that he won’t be able to hide his secret from Shiva, “the most ferocious and powerful of the Children,” who will be sure to claim his birthright if he finds out the truth. Saleem vows to keep his secret just as Mary had, and he continues to avoid the other children.

In the days following Hanif’s mourning period, the dust begins to settle around Buckingham Villa, but Ahmed remains drunk and angry. Surprisingly, he doesn’t blame Mary, or even Saleem, for the midnight switch. Instead, he focuses his considerable rage onto Amina, berating and abusing her until Reverend Mother intervenes. Telling her daughter that there is “no shame in leaving an inadequate husband,” she encourages Amina to go to Pakistan. “Take your children, I say, whatsitname—both your children.”

Later that same day, Amina, Saleem, and the Brass Monkey begin to travel back to Pakistan with Emerald and Zulfikar. As Amina leaves, all the servants quit, except for Alice Pereira, who stays behind to watch over Ahmed. When Saleem arrives in Pakistan, he notices that his “thought-transmissions are jammed.” He is unable to commune with the Midnight Children’s Conference in the land of the pure.

They arrive in Rawalpindi aboard the SS Sabarmati and go directly to Emerald and Zulfikar’s large and impressive mansion, which is surrounded by barbed wire and armed guards. Zulfikar frequently yells out the family’s official “catch-phrase,” “Let’s get organized!” and the entire family is militarized, even the old beagle, Bonzo. Bonzo holds the rank of sergeant-major and is natural at sniffing out land-mines.

Saleem and the Brass Monkey go to school with Emerald and Zulfikar’s son, Zafar, an unpleasant boy who wets the bed and has a crush on the Monkey. Each time Zafar wets the bed (which he shares with Saleem), Zulfikar belittles him, calling him names such as “coward,” “woman,” and “homosexual.”

Amina tries to rebuild her relationship with her son (who really isn’t her son), but her attempts are forced and Saleem feels alienated from his mother and the Monkey. One night, shortly after their arrival to Pakistan, Emerald readies the mansion for a dinner party. Saleem notices Army security officers and military police lurking around the property, and soon a series of long, black limousines pull into the driveway.

As the dinner guests arrive, Saleem has no idea who they are, but he is sure that they are military officers. Emerald refers to the man who is clearly the guest of honor as “Mr. Commander-in-Chief,” and after the meal, the women abruptly stand to leave the table. Saleem and Zafar follow suit, but “Mr. Commander-in-Chief,” whose name is General Ayub Khan, asks the boys to stay, claiming, “It is their future, after all.”

Once the women are gone, General Khan declares Martial Law and states, “I am assuming control of the State.” In that moment, Saleem and Zafar realize that Zulfikar and his dinner guests are planning a coup of the Pakistani government, and Zafar immediately wets his pants. Zulfikar begins to yell at Zafar, “Pimp! Woman! Hindu!” and orders him from the room. With Zafar gone, Zulfikar asks Saleem to come and sit near him at the head of the table.

Sitting next to Zulfikar, Saleem “created a new father for himself,” and as Zulfikar directed him and described the movements of troops, Saleem symbolically moved pepperpots and chutneys, serving spoons and cutlery around the table, demonstrating their treasonous coup. The cream-jug represented the President, Iskander Mirza, but it did not move during the demonstration. For three weeks after the pepperpot demonstration, Mirza remained the President of Pakistan.

At midnight on November 1, Zulfikar wakes Saleem from a sound sleep, whispering, “Come on, sonny, it’s time you got a taste of the real thing.” After racing through the Rawalpindi streets, they pull up to a large mansion with armed guards. The guards part ways, allowing them to pass, and Zulfikar leads Saleem into a dark bedroom with a large four-poster bed. A sleeping man suddenly sits up, surprised, and Zulfikar shoves a long-barreled revolver into his mouth. “Shut up,” Zulfikar says. “Come with us.” He drags the man, naked and shivering, out to the car.

Zulfikar drives the man to a military airfield and places him on a plane. As the plane takes off, Saleem realizes that not only did he help to plan a coup, but he also helped to kidnap and exile a president.

Amina stays in Pakistan for four years with Saleem and the Brass Monkey, who begins to abandon her rebellious ways and becomes a devout and demure Muslim. The relationship between Pakistan and India continues to deteriorate, and Saleem remains unable to contact the Midnight Children’s Conference. On the Monkey’s fourteenth birthday, Emerald throws a small party and encourages the Monkey to sing for her guests. She obliges, and when she opens her mouth to sing, the most beautiful, heavenly voice emerges. In that moment, “the Brass Monkey sloughs off her nick-name” and becomes Jamila Singer.