The Satanic Verses Chapter 2 Summary

The Satanic Verses Chapter 2 Summary

As Flight 420 takes off, Saladin Chamcha prays for good fortune. The narrator claims that he acquired a voice to fit his face and sports an expression of “alert scorn.” However, recently both the voice and the appearance have started to degrade. Salahuddin Chamchawala, also known as Saladin, remembers his formative years in Bombay as he mulls over the variations in his voice. A wallet with British currency had once been discovered on the ground by him. Changez Chamchawala, his father, had asked for the wallet as he reached inside to take out the cash. Saladin started having aspirations of emigrating. London, which he insidiously called ellowen deeowen, was the place he thought was meant for him to visit.

When his father chose to send him to school in England, he was granted his request. When Saladin went home five years later, his father was infuriated by his disrespectful attitude toward India. Saladin went back to England for education when his mother, Nasreen Chamchawala, passed away abruptly from choking on a fish bone. As a result of his father’s second marriage to a woman named Nasreen, tensions between the two men grew. After graduating, Saladin made the decision to remain in London, pursued a career as an actor, and communicated with his increasingly devout father less and less. Saladin and Pamela Lovelace got married around the close of the 1960s. Her tragic past—her parents had committed suicide when she was a young woman—and their infertility, however, had a negative impact on their marriage. Saladin decided to become an actor. Saladin started an affair with Zeeny Vakil while acting in India again. She attempted to reacquaint him with his culture as an Indian writer who is passionate about Indian identity.

In a busy pub one evening after a play, Bhupen Gandhi and George Miranda, who were with them, got into a heated political debate, which left Saladin feeling overpowered. He became aware that he was no longer authentically Indian: “Not at home here. I get excited because even though it’s not home, it feels like it.” Even though he was aware that one of his acting roles there (as a masked alien) was receiving harsh criticism for its immigration-related themes, he made the decision to return to England.

But he visited his father before departing from India. Saladin discovered his father was having an affair with Kasturba when he saw her at his father’s home wearing his mother’s old clothes. Kasturba was the housekeeper Vallabhbhai’s wife. After the awkward encounter, Saladin boarded Flight 420 to return to London because he was shocked and furious.