The Moor's Last Sigh

'The Moor's Last Sigh' by Salman Rushdie is the tale of the fall from grace of the da Gama - Zogoiby family, Set in the Indian city of Bombay (or "Mumbai") and Cochin (or "Kochi').
The plot traces four generations of the narrator Moraes Zogoiby 's family and the ultimate effects upon the narrator. The first part of the book is about the first two generations, in Fort Cochin, the Da Gamas. His mother married Abraham Zogoiby, and it was his parents who moved to Mumbai. Abraham Zogoiby was a great businessman, whose business ends with him. He had all the underground and great links, having left his mother for Aurora Da Gama, and is belived to have a link in her death on Ganapathi eve too. Who is Moors father is also a mystery.
Moraes, who is called "Moor" throughout the book, is an exceptional character, who’s physical body ages twice as fast as a normal person's does and also has a deformed hand. Moor leads an interesting life, especially in his relationships with women, including his mother Aurora, who is a famous national painter. When he was green, his beloved Uma told him in fondness, ‘Oh, you Moor, you strange black man, always so full of theses, never a church door to nail them to’, which is the beginning of the tale. Also he has three sisters, Jimmy Cash (Christina) Minnie (Inamorata), and Mynah (Philomina). Finally, after the strange deaths of his mother, Uma, siblings, and to free himself from the undeworld Mumbai , the riot and commotion in Mumbai, he moves to Spain, meets the lesbians, who take him to his childhood tuitor and mothers long time mate, Vasco, where he learns, more bitter truth, and finally Aoi, and Vasco meets their death.
Vasco Mirand’s view on Mrs. Gandhi returning to power, with Sanjay on her right, was that there is no finaly morality, but only Relativity. The Indian Variation upon the theme of Einstein’s General Theory was given thus:
‘Everything is for relative. Not only light bends, but everything. For relative we can bend a point, bend the truth, bend employment criteria, bend the law. D equals mc squared, where D is for Dynasty, m is for mass of relatives, and c of course is for corruption, which is the only constant in the universe- because in India even speed of light is dependent on load shedding and vagaries of power supply.
There is the all knowing, all powerful, Uma, who at the same time, move around with Moor, his father and brother in law. Uma is well versed in every subject. I remembered Sowmya, my one time hostel mate…on reading about her. There was a good amount of secrecy behind her. For her Moor said ‘ I will not die for you, my Uma, but I will live for you. However harsh that life may be.’
And yes, much is being nailed down. Colours, for example, to the mast. But after a not-so-long (though gaudily colourful) life Moor is fresh out of theses. Life itself being crucifixion enough.
The novel is populated with a heterogenous spread of characters: an old Portuguese family descended from the explorer Vasco Da Gama; the Jewish clan of the Zogoiby’s who trace a clandestine history with the last Moorish king of Grenada, Boabdil; a jealous Christian priest Olivier D’Aeth (controversially pronounced All Over Death); the Muslim gangster ‘Scar’ controlling the Bombay underworld; a Hindu fundamentalist Raman Fielding, also known as mainduck after the signature-frog accompanying his cartoons. Interestingly, Fielding as a character cuts across both the fictive and real worlds, with many pointing out that the character is a thinly disguised caricature of the Hindu nationalist leader Bal Thakeray who, like Fielding, started out as a cartoonist with the English daily The Free Press Journal before going on to establish himself as a Hindutva stalwart in Mumbai.