Midnight’s Children: Book 3: The Shadow of the Mosque Summary & Analysis

As Saleem continues his story, he notes that he now has twenty-six pickle-jars present for each of the chapters in his story. Padma continues to enjoy the story and Saleem’s company. She talks of a Kashmiri vacation together, and for the first time, she has a “desire for legitimacy” and a “hope-for-marriage.” Sadly, Saleem’s cracks are worsening, and he must finish his story—Padma will have to wait.

When Saleem returns to India, Indira Gandhi’s New Congress Party is in full power. Saleem is struck by a sudden sympathy for his country, and he vows to save the country from Mrs. Gandhi’s grip.

Saleem stays for a few days in the ghetto, a guest of Picture Singh, but he soon remembers that his uncle, Mustapha Aziz, lives nearby in the city of Delhi. He hopes to stay with Mustapha for a while and recover from his recent trials.

Parvati tells Saleem that she also ran into Shiva in Dacca when he came through with the army procession. Shiva, a famous war hero, gave Parvati a lock of his hair, and she hopes that he will come and visit the ghetto so that they may all be together.

Mustapha spends his free time researching genealogies and lineages. One day, Saleem sees a folder in his office labeled TOP SECRET with the title PROJECT M.C.C.

While at Mustapha’s, Saleem also definitively learns about the deaths of his family and the recent disappearance of Jamila Singer. When Mustapha’s wife Sonia learns that Saleem fought on the Pakistani side of the war, she refuses to feed him and wishes him gone; yet Mustapha insists that he can stay. Saleem begins a four-hundred-day mourning period, to honor each of his fallen family members.

Following Saleem’s disappearance during the war, Jamila spoke out against the Pakistani government and was forced to go into hiding. Jamila slips, undetected, behind the watchful walls of the order of Santa Ignacia, dedicating herself to Christianity and leavened bread.

On the four hundred and eighteenth day of Saleem’s stay in Mustapha’s home, a man with “a mouth as fleshy as a woman’s labia” comes to dinner. Saleem thinks that he recognizes him, and the man joins Mustapha in his office.

That night, Parvati comes to visit Saleem. She tells him that she has been wanting him to come and visit her in the ghetto because she has no one to talk to. She can’t tell the others, including Picture Singh, about her true powers, and she is able to talk to Saleem.

Later that same night, Sonia and Mustapha kick Saleem out of their house after they catch him in bed with Parvati. Parvati is waiting for him in the street, and together, they return to the magicians’ ghetto.

At the magician’s ghetto, Parvati shares her magic with Saleem in the shadow of a mosque. She is a skilled witch of “white magic,” and can cure sickness and counter poison. With Parvati, Saleem’s hair begins to finally grow back, and the birthmarks on his face fade; however, he is never able to “do for her the thing she desired most.” Saleem claims that he is under a bewitchment which has stolen his sex.

Parvati develops a perpetual pout, and Picture Singh decides it is because she wants to get married. He asks Saleem if he is interested, but Saleem claims that he can’t marry Parvati because he is unable to father children. Picture Singh warns him, “One must not lie about such things, captain. To lie about one’s manhood is bad, bad luck. Anything could happen.”