REPRESENTATION OF TAI IN SALMAN RUSHDIE’S ‘MIDNIGHT’S CHILDREN’

IntroductionTai is the third character

introduced in this book.Tai is a ‘simple ferryman’.He plies across Lake Dal and

Nageen.He is a part of symbolism in

‘Midnight’s Children’.His character is dealt in detail in

the first two chapters.

SHIKARA

Representation of Tai Tai, in this book, represents the following:

Permanence - Living Anti-thesis to the Inevitability of change .

Permanence Vs Change.The Author’s Medium for Representing the Inevitability of Change.

Element of FantasyFree Spirit of Nature.A Symbol of Familiarity. A Revolutionary.

Permanence - Living Anti-thesis to the Inevitability of change

Tai is man who has no beginning and no end.

No one remembers him being young.

“ Nobody could remember when Tai had been young.”

During Spring it is Tai’s Shikara that starts floating first , as a custom. It is not because he is popular than other Shikaris, but that he knows the weather very well to notice the thaw first.

“…oldest boat was up the crack as old folks often are, was therefore the first craft to move across the unfrozen lake.”

“…one of the defining images of coming spring.”

He claims to be older than the mountains. “ I have watched the mountains being

born: I have seen Emperors die”.Oscar, Ilse, Ingrid- Aadam’s friends in

Germany. They believed in that, “Nothing endures but change.” Tai stands as a living antithesis to Oskar- Ilse-Ingrid’s this belief in the inevitability of change.

Permanence Vs Change.Tai is a person who has been

resisting change for a long time. He is permanence personified.

This can be shown by his behaviour towards Aadam after his return from Germany and especially by his reaction on seeing Aadam’s bag containing medicines.

“We haven’t got enough bags at home that you must bring that thing made of a pig’s skin…”

Tai’s resistance to change breaks the old friendship between the doctor and him. They become antagonists.

“…it sits between doctor and boatman, and has made them antagonists.

Bag – symbol of change, progress.He is a part of Salman Rushdie that

resists change. Salman Rushdie – Kashmiri brought

up in England.Tai represents the part of everyman’s

soul that resists change.

The Author’s Medium for Representing the Inevitability of

Change. Though Salman Rushdie portrays Tai as a

symbol of Permanence, he also uses Tai to bring out the importance of change. On seeing the changes brought by

Doctor Aadam, Tai decides not to take bath.

“Meanwhile, the boatman, Tai, had taken his unexplained decision to give up washing.”

This shows that anything that does not change stinks – The importance of change.

Tai announcing that Naseem is sick – Permanence bringing change.

“Tai bringing an urgent summons to Doctor Aziz, is about to set history in motion.”

Element of FantasyTai gives out fabricated or

imaginary stories of history.His story of Jesus Christ as “bald and gluttonous”.

His story of Emperor Jehangir.“Ask me what was the Emperor’s dying word- I tell you it was “Kashmir”.

His belief of Fantasy – The patriarchal aspect of Aadam’s nose.

He tells Aadam to trust his nose.

“ A nose like that, little idiot, is a great gift. I say: trust it. When it warns you, look out or you’ll be finished. Follow your nose and you’ll go far.”

Free Spirit of NatureTai is synonymous with nature.Salman gives the description of Tai as, “his

face was a sculpture of wind on water: ripples made of hide.” – words that attribute nature's qualities in Tai

His fellow boatmen look at him with awe and fear.

“..awe, because, the old half-wit knew the lakes and hills better than any of his detractors: fear, because of his claim to an antiquity so immense it defied numbering.”

A Symbol of FamiliarityFamiliarity, in this novel, is

represented by Tai. “…a quirky, enduring familiar

spirit of the valley.”No one can think of the Kashmiri

valley and forget Tai, he is a part of it.

He is a representation of all boatmen who live in accord with the nature of the valley.

Revolutionary

Tai – an unspoken revolutionist.He fought against what he thought was

bad. e.g. Aadam’s bag.In 1947, he dies trying to give a piece of

his mind to the Indian and Pakistani armies fighting over the Kashmiri valley.

He wanted a peaceful Kashmir, “Kashmir for Kashmiris: that as his

line.”

Conclusion

Thus Salman Rushdie, though portraying Tai as a quirky, eccentric character, brings out in actual fact a symbolic representation of all that is permanent, natural, free and familiar.

Thank

You!!!