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Salman Rushdie On Surviving “Colossal” Knife Attack


'I'm lucky': Salman Rushdie survives 'huge' knife attack

“I can get up and walk,” Salman Rushdie told ‘The New Yorker’ magazine

London:

Salman Rushdie, the Mumbai-born author of the Booker Prize-winning novel ‘Midnight’s Children’, said on Monday that he felt lucky to have survived last year’s brutal stabbing at an event literature in America when he first spoke of the “giant attack”.

The 75-year-old British-American novelist was giving a presentation at the Chautauqua Institute in New York – where he works – on August 12 of last year when a man walked on stage and stabbed and punched him several times.

In his first interview since the attack that left him blind in one eye, the author told ‘The New Yorker’ magazine that his main feeling is gratitude to those who have supported him and his family, including sons Zafar and Milan.

“I’m so lucky. What I really want to say is that my main overwhelming feeling is gratitude,” Mr. Rushdie told the magazine.

“I can get up and walk. When I say I’m fine, I mean there are parts of my body that need to be constantly checked. It’s a huge hit,” he said.

Asked if he felt it was wrong to let his guard down in New York, years after the Fatwa act by former Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Khomeini called for Muslims to assassinate the alleged novel’s author ” blasphemy” “Satan’s verses,” he replied, “Well, I’m asking myself that question and I don’t know the answer to it. I’ve had more than 20 years of my life. So, that’s it. Was it a mistake?” “Also, I’ve written a lot of books. ‘The Satanic Verses’ is my fifth published book – my fourth published novel – and here it is. [‘Victory City’] is my twenty-first. So three quarters of my life as a writer have happened since fatwa. In a way, you can’t regret your life,” he added.

The famous author told the magazine that he was moved by the tributes his near-death inspired and determined to work towards.

“It’s great that everyone is touched by this, you know? I never thought how people would react if I was assassinated, or nearly assassinated,” he said.

“I’ve tried really hard over the years to avoid accusations and bitterness. I just think it’s not a good view. One of the ways I’ve dealt with the whole thing is to look ahead. not back. What happens tomorrow is much more important than what happened yesterday,” he added.

He said of his wife, poet and novelist Rachel Eliza Griffiths: “She took over the moment when I was powerless.

His latest novel, ‘Victory City’, completed before the attack, recounts a trip decades ago to Hampi, the site in Karnataka containing the ruins of the medieval Vijayanagara empire.

“The first kings of Vijayanagara claimed quite seriously that they were descendants of the moon… That’s like saying, ‘I am descended from the same family as Achilles.’ Or Agamemnon. And so I thought, if you can say that, I can say anything,” the author said.

Rushdie’s assailant, Hadi Matar, is being held at the Chautauqua County Jail in the village of Mayville, charged with attempted second-degree murder and faces a long prison term.

(Except for the title, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from an aggregated feed.)

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