The writer of Indian roots, Ahmed Salman Rushdie, was wounded in the attack 2 days ago in New York and is in an extremely serious health condition.
Who is Salman Rushdie
The Indian writer Salman Rushdie was born in 1947 in Bombay, back in the period when India was ruled by the British crown. As the child of a lawyer and a teacher, Rushdie was educated in elite institutions before enrolling at King’s College in Cambridge, where he graduated with a degree in art history.
Rushdie published his first novel “Grimus” in 1975, but he wrote one of his most popular books a few years later, more precisely in 1981, when he presented himself to the public with the novel “Midnight’s Children”, for which he also won the Booker Prize.
However, none of Rushdie’s works have caused as much controversy as the one he wrote in 1988. During this period, Rushdie published “The Satanic Verses”, a work that many Muslims considered blasphemous and offensive.
”Bosnia on my mind”
Although the story of Salman Rushdie gained worldwide popularity due to his controversial book, this Indian writer became even closer to the inhabitants of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) through his essay published in 1994 entitled “Bosnia on my mind”.
”For me, the truth lies in the nature and meaning of Sarajevo, where, as Susan Sontag said, the twentieth century began, and where it ends. I have never been to Sarajevo, but I feel that I somehow belong to it. I am proud to be an honorary member of the PEN club of the former Yugoslavia and I hope that I will not be considered presumptuous if I say that as a result of this new relationship, in some sense I am also in exile from Sarajevo, even though it is a city I do not know,” he stated.
At the end of his essay, Rushdie wrote that he watched a strange short film in which a man drives through the streets of Sarajevo and repeats the name “Salman Rushdie” like a mantra.
”Is he singing it to remind him of the danger, or as a kind of amulet to protect him? I hope it’s the latter. In the spirit of that lovely magic, I also started muttering the name of a city unknown to me, where I declare myself as its citizen. Sarajevo, Sarajevo, Sarajevo, Sarajevo…,” is the conclusion of Rushdie’s essay, Klix.ba writes.
E.Dz
