How we cite our quotes: (Book.Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #7
Of late, in spite of my stoic fatalism about the spreading cracks, I have smelled, on Padma's breath, the dream of an alternative (but impossible) future; ignoring the implacable finalities of inner fissures, she has begun to exude the bitter-sweet fragrance of hope-for-marriage. (3.27.3)
Padma, unlike Saleem, is not fatalistic. She believes in a future, and the possibility for change.
Quote #8
If I, snot-nosed stain-faced etcetera, had had a hard time of it, then so had she, my subcontinental twin sister; and now that I had given myself the right to choose a better future, I was resolved that the nation should share it, too. I think that when I tumbled out into dust, shadow and amused cheers, I had already decided to save the country. (3.27.5)
Even though this seems like a bright moment where everything can change, it ends just like everything else. Saleem fails to accomplish anything, and somehow ends up even worse than when he began.
Quote #9
'You were born from bhangis, you will remain a dirty type all your life'; on the four hundred and twentieth day after my arrival, I left my uncle's house, deprived of family ties, returned at last to that true inheritance of poverty and destitution of which I had been cheated for so long by the crime of Mary Pereira. (3.27.39)
Saleem's aunt says that his birth determined his whole life, but is that true? Elsewhere he says that he doesn't belong to the rich or to the poor, so hasn't he escaped the fate of his switcheroo?