Jane-Rushdie-2/28/2011

Throughout the narrative we find ourselves questioning Saleem as a reliable narrator and whether or not he is in fact, insane, which is why is find the opening paragraph of All- India Radio telling about Saleem's interpretation of history to be truthful. At the end of the passage when he says, "I reiterate, without a sense of shame, my unbelievable claim: after a curious accident in a washing-chest, I became a sort of radio" (Rushdie, 189) I was reminded of an earlier passage wherein several villagers find Saleem's grandfather's optimism in the face of revolt and bloodshed disconcerting: "The old men at the paan-shop at the top of Cornwallis Road chewed betel and suspected a trick. I have lived twice as long as I should have,the oldest one said, his voice cracking like an old radio because decades were rubbing up against each other around his vocal chords" (Rushdie, 38). This seems to correspond to Rushdie's metaphor of the distortion of the movie screen when seen up close to our perception of history when in the present. As another modern device, the likening of the old man to the garbled sounds of a radio being the result of decades past melding into one another speaks further Saleem comparing himself to a radio and whether then we can trust him as a reputable source of knowledge on India's past.