How we cite our quotes: (Book.Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #4
I don't know about any of that. To me, it was like time had come to a complete stop. The baby in my stomach stopped the clocks. I'm sure of that. Don't laugh: you remember the clocktower at the end of the hill? (1.7.45)
This is Amina Sinai talking about Saleem. When he was born, the clock tower by the Methwold estate stopped working. Right before Saleem is born, there is a clock counting down to the moment of independence. Then right before Saleem is about to die there is a new countdown, to his death. Why don't the clocks work in between?
Quote #5
Padma can hear it: there's nothing like a countdown for building suspense. I watched my dung-flower at work today, stirring vats like a whirlwind, as if that would make the time go faster. (And perhaps it did; time, in my experience, has been as variable and inconstant as Bombay's electric power supply. Just telephone the speaking clock if you don't believe me-tied to electricity, it's usually a few hours wrong. Unless we're the ones who are wrong... no people whose word for 'yesterday' is the same as their word for' tomorrow' can be said to have a firm grip on the time.) (1.8.1)
We're kind of confused. How is time so easily manipulated, but so powerful that Saleem can't escape it? That seems a little weird, doesn't it?
Quote #6
Still, I am at my table once again; once again Padma sits at my feet, urging me on. I am balanced once more-the base of my isosceles triangle is secure. I hover at the apex, above present and past, and feel fluency returning to my pen. (2.14.9)
So imagine this: There is a triangle with the past on one side and the present on the other. But where's the future? Saleem says that he hovers at the apex, but what does that mean, since by this point in the novel he has no connection to the future?