How we cite our quotes: (Book.Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #7
... Padma, who along with the yaksa genii, who represent the sacred treasure of the earth, and the sacred rivers, Ganga Yamuna Sarasvati, and the tree goddesses, is one of the Guardians of Life, beguiling and comforting mortal men while they pass through the dream-web of Maya .. Padma, the Lotus calyx, which grew out of Vishnu's navel, and from which Brahma himself was born; Padma the Source, the mother of Time! (2.14.14)
Okay, this takes some explaining. Padma is another name for Lakshmi, Vishnu's wife. The name Padma also means lotus, or lotus dweller. Brahma is the god that creates the universe, and time is measured in the days of his life. Brahma was born from a lotus, so you could say that Padma is his mom. So Padma is the mother of time. Get it?
Quote #8
What is waiting to be told: the return of ticktock. But now time is counting down to an end, not a birth; there is, too, a weariness to be mentioned, a general fatigue so profound that the end, when it comes, will be the only solution, because human beings, like nations and fictional characters, can simply run out of steam, and then there's nothing for it but to finish with them. (2.23.1)
Clocks are moving again, but what exactly is dying? Is it Saleem? Is it India? Is it the novel? Is it all the above?
Quote #9
[…] because now as I look up there is a feeling at the back of my head and after that there is only a tiny but infinite moment of utter clarity while I tumble forwards to prostrate myself before my parents' funeral pyre, a minuscule but endless instant of knowing, before I am stripped of past present memory time shame and love, a fleeting, but also timeless explosion in which I bow my head yes I acquiesce yes […] (2.23.62)
This scene happens right before the spittoon hits Saleem in the head and makes him lose all of his memories. He says this is when he is "purified." What do you think he means by this? Also, we thought it would just be cool to mention that Saleem obviously thinks that you cannot be yourself without your memories. Your history makes you who you are.