For example, when Padma asks what happened to Mary Pereira, in anger, Saleem shouts at Padma, telling her to find out the truth herself. In his narrative, Saleem himself asks questions that he can't answer. I, however, have pickled chapters. We must live, I'm afraid, with the shadows of imperfection. His autobiography, the miniature of India's history, like the pickling process, has underwent some chemical reaction that some elements might be exaggerated, muffled or transformed into another form of substance which can no longer be recognized.
Distortions are thus inevitable.
Rushdie's novel deliberately foregrounds the problems in writing history. Indeed, the self-reflective techniques reshape our knowledge to history. Saleem is caught in dilemma when writing his life. The protagonist exposes the ruptures and leakage in the history which the traditional historicists endeavor to smooth. However, it could be a positive sign because the novel draws our attention to the process of the representation, instead of the result of it.