FEELING STUPID

You might want to know who this lady is if you're planning on reading "Midnight's Children." She's Indira Ghandi, first and only woman Prime Minister of India.

Maybe a reason it's taken me an abnormally long time to read "Midnight's Children" is because everything I turn a page, I KNOW I have to look up words on dictionary.com and text my friend S to understand a different aspect of Indian-Pakistan history, not to mention colloquial language. It's a lot frustrating and I'm embarrassed by my huge lack of knowledge... I have a hundred pages to go, and I feel like I'm going to spend a lot of time on Wikipedia the next few days just figuring stuff out. Also, looking for a recommendations for books on Indian independence and relations with Pakistan. Seriously, my ignorance is disheartening :(

An excerpt:

"There were, of course, a few exceptions to the ghetto's rules: one or two conjurers retained their Hindu faith and in, politics, espoused the Hindu-sectarian Jana Sangh party or the notorious Ananada Marg extremists; there were even Swatantra voters amongst the jugglers... Only when you passed through its castellated gateway did you realize that behind meticulously hyperbolic facade of bamboo-and-paper crenellations and ravelins hid a tin-and-cardboard hovel like all the rest. Chisti Khan had committed the ultimate solecism of permitting his illusionist exptertise to infect his real life; he was not popular in the ghetto."
- "Midnight's Children" by Salman Rushdie

I don't want to mislead you -- the text is actually really funny because metaphorical ideas are often literally interpreted by Rushdie; the ideas are fresh and compelling. I'm just too dumb to get all the inside jokes.

currently listening to:
Province
TV on the Radio

-t