Midnight's Children

Midnight's Children is a 1981 book by Salman Rushdie that deals with India's transition from British colonialism to independence and the partition of British India. It is considered an example of postcolonial literature and magical realism. The story is told by its chief protagonist, Saleem Sinai, and is set in the context of actual historical events as with historical fiction.

Midnight's Children won both the Booker Prize and the James Tait Black Memorial Prize in 1981. It was awarded the "Booker of Bookers" Prize and the best all-time prize winners in 1993 and 2008 to celebrate the Booker Prize 25th and 40th anniversary. In 2003, the novel was listed on the BBC's survey The Big Read. It was also added to the list of Great Books of the 20th Century, published by Penguin Books.

Background and plot summary

The novel has a multitude of named characters; see the List of Midnight's Children characters.

Midnight's Children is a loose allegory for events in India both before and, primarily, after the independence and partition of India. The protagonist and narrator of the story is Saleem Sinai, born at the exact moment when India became an independent country. He was born with telepathic powers, as well as an enormous and constantly dripping nose with an extremely sensitive sense of smell. The novel is divided into three books.

Salman Rushdie

Sir Ahmad Salman Rushdie, (Kt.) FRSL (/sælˈmɑːn ˈrʊʃdi/;Kashmiri: अहमद सलमान रुशदी (Devanagari), احمد سلمان رشدی (Nastaʿlīq); born 19 June 1947) is a British Indian novelist and essayist. His second novel, Midnight's Children (1981), won the Booker Prize in 1981. Much of his fiction is set on the Indian subcontinent. He is said to combine magical realism with historical fiction; his work is concerned with the many connections, disruptions, and migrations between Eastern and Western civilizations.

His fourth novel, The Satanic Verses (1988), was the centre of a major controversy, provoking protests from Muslims in several countries. Death threats were made against him, including a fatwā calling for his assassination issued by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the Supreme Leader of Iran, on 14 February 1989, and as a result he was put under police protection by the British government.

Rushdie was elected a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, Britain's senior literary organisation, in 1983. He was appointed Commandeur de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres of France in January 1999. In June 2007, Queen Elizabeth II knighted him for his services to literature. In 2008, The Times ranked him thirteenth on its list of the fifty greatest British writers since 1945.

Satya Bhabha

Satya Sorab Bhabha (born 13 December 1983) is a British-born American actor most known for his role as Matthew Patel in the 2010 film Scott Pilgrim vs. the World and his recurring role as Shivrang in the New Girl.

Life and career

Bhabha was born in London, England. His father, professor Homi K. Bhabha, is an Indian of Parsi heritage. His mother, lecturer Jacqueline Bhabha (née Strimpel), was born in India, to German Jewish parents, and grew up in Italy. He is a graduate of Yale University, where he acted in and directed student theater productions, is said to have been a member of Skull and Bones, and was a recipient of the Louis Sudler Prize for Excellence in the Arts.

In 2010, Bhabha appeared in the film version of the graphic novel Scott Pilgrim, entitled Scott Pilgrim vs. the World. Bhabha plays the lead role in the Deepa Mehta film Midnight's Children (2012), based on Salman Rushdie's novel Midnight's Children.

In 2012, Bhabha was cast in the FOX sitcom New Girl. He plays a love interest and fiancé of Hannah Simone's character Cece.

Midnight

Midnight is the transition time period from one day to the next: the moment when the date changes. In ancient Roman timekeeping, midnight was halfway between sunset and sunrise, varying according to the seasons.

Solar midnight is the time opposite of solar noon, when the sun is closest to nadir and the night is equidistant from dusk and dawn. Due to the advent of time zones, which make time identical across a range of meridians, and daylight saving time, it rarely coincides with midnight on a clock. Solar midnight is dependent on longitude and time of the year rather than on a time zone.

In the northern hemisphere, "midnight" had an ancient geographic association with "north" (as did "noon" with "south" – see noon). Modern Polish preserves this association with its word for "midnight" ("północ – literally "half-night"), which also means "north".

Start and end of day

Midnight marks the beginning and ending of each day in civil time throughout the world. It is the dividing point between one day and another. With 12-hour time notation, authorities recommend avoiding confusion between noon and midnight by using "midnight", "12 midnight", "12 mi", or "12:00 midnight."

Child

Biologically, a child (plural: children) is a human between the stages of birth and puberty. The legal definition of child generally refers to a minor, otherwise known as a person younger than the age of majority.

Child may also describe a relationship with a parent (such as sons and daughters of any age) or, metaphorically, an authority figure, or signify group membership in a clan, tribe, or religion; it can also signify being strongly affected by a specific time, place, or circumstance, as in "a child of nature" or "a child of the Sixties".

There are many social issues that affect children, such as childhood education, bullying, child poverty, dysfunctional families, child labor, and in developing countries, hunger. Children can be raised by parents, by fosterers, guardians or partially raised in a day care center.

Legal, biological, and social definitions

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child defines child as "a human being below the age of 18 years unless under the law applicable to the child, majority is attained earlier". This is ratified by 192 of 194 member countries. In U.S. Immigration Law, a child refers to anyone who is under the age of 21.