In Rushdie's book, Haroun is the son of Rashid Khalifa, a famous story-teller, who loses his powers of story-telling when his wife leaves him for Mr. Sengupta, a town clerk who hates fictional stories. Haroun accompanies his father to the beautiful Dull Lake which closely resembles the Dal Lake in Kashmir. Having taken residence on one of this lake's famous tourist houseboats, called Arabian Nights Plus One, Haroun embarks on a quest to recover his father's lost powers of story telling. A Water Genie takes him to the Ocean of the Streams of Story and invites him to drink of it. Instead of experiencing a beautiful love story, however, he undergoes a nightmare. The ocean turns out to be poisoned by a tyrannous "Cultmaster" (148) who aims at controlling the world. After visiting Gup City which is oppressed by Khattam-Shud, the cultmaster, Haroun finally manages to stop the source which is poisoning the ocean of stories.
Salman Rushdie presenting his book "Shalimar the c...
English: Ruhollah Khomeini فارسی: امام خ...
The Satanic VersesAs a reward, the king of Gup provides him with a happy ending: Haroun awakes in his bed on the houseboat and finds that his father has recovered his gift of story-telling. His mother returns to the family to complete the happy ending.
In Rushdie's book, Haroun is the son of Rashid Khalifa, a famous story-teller, who loses his powers of story-telling when his wife leaves him for Mr. Sengupta, a town clerk who hates fictional stories. Haroun accompanies his father to the beautiful Dull Lake which closely resembles the Dal Lake in Kashmir. Having taken residence on one of this lake's famous tourist house boats, called Arabian Nights Plus One, Haroun embarks on a quest to recover his father's lost powers of story-telling. A Water Genie takes him to the Ocean of the Streams of Story and invites him to drink of it.