London: Author Salman Rushdie on Monday said he feels lucky to have survived the brutal stabbing that took place at a literary event in the US. The 75-year-old was speaking to the media for the first time since the near-death experience.
The Booker Prize-winning novelist was at the Chautauqua Institution in New York and giving a lecture on August 12, 2022, when a man reached the stage and stabbed him multiple times. Speaking to The New Yorker magazine, he said his main feeling was one of gratitude to those who showed their support and his family, including sons Zafar and Milan.
The writer has lost vision in one eye. "I'm lucky. What I really want to say is that my main overwhelming feeling is gratitude. "I'm able to get up and walk around. When I say I'm fine, I mean, there are bits of my body that need constant checkups. It was a colossal attack," he said. He added that his wife Rachel Eliza Griffiths took over "at a point when I was helpless."
He further said he was very moved by the tributes his near-death inspired and is determined to look forward. "I had never thought about how people would react if I was assassinated, or almost assassinated. I've tried very hard over these years to avoid recrimination and bitterness. I just think it's not a good look. One of the ways I've dealt with this whole thing is to look forward and not backwards. What happens tomorrow is more important than what happened yesterday."
The magazine asked him if he thinks it was a mistake to let his guard down in New York years after Iran's former leader called for his assassination, Rushdie said: "Well, I'm asking myself that question, and I don't know the answer to it. I did have more than 20 years of life. So, is that a mistake? Also, I wrote a lot of books. 'The Satanic Verses' was my fifth published book - my fourth published novel - and this (Victory City) is my twenty-first. So, three-quarters of my life as a writer has happened since the fatwa. In a way, you can't regret your life."
The celebrated author published his 21st book 'Victory City' only six months after the attack. It was completed before the incident.
It is about a trip he took to Hampi, the ruins of the medieval Vijayanagara empire in Karnataka. He said: "The first kings of Vijayanagara announced, quite seriously, that they were descended from the moon... It's like saying, 'I've descended from the same family as Achilles.' Or Agamemnon. And so, I thought, well, if you could say that, I can say anything."