Good Advice is Rarer than Rubies

Rushdie is well known for characters who undergo transformations and search for their identity because of or during migration, colonization, and nationalism—transformations further complicated by the perceived identities that characters impose on each other. Rushdie’s choice of setting in this story—a Pakistani shantytown erected between the bus compound and the British Consulate—conveys the transitory nature of place, power, and identity, as well as the unintended consequences of colonization and migration.

The short story tracks numerous changing people and places, demonstrating the cultural rifts that result from an outside party determining what is best for another. The partitioning of India, for example, ended in one of the most bloody, violent incidents in history. Though the “gift” of independence that Muhammad Ali offers to Miss Rehana does not produce such dramatic consequences (and isn’t accepted anyway), “Good Advice Is Rarer Than Rubies” nevertheless reveals the conflicts inherent in the postcolonial world. As in much of Rushdie’s writing, the story identifies the postcolonial subject, who inhabits multiple identities at once, as the site of many of these conflicts. Women, for example, are described as both manipulative and vulnerable, while Muhammad Ali is a con artist who is duped by his latest target. That target, Miss Rehana, is likewise complex and shifting: Muhammad Ali dubs her an “innocent sparrow,” but she proves to be the character with the most agency.

The narrative is satirical, and Miss Rehana is the figure through whom Rushdie’s critique of Western “leadership” becomes most apparent. In the pair’s interactions, Muhammad acts as a proxy for the United Kingdom, while Miss Rehana is very much like India, romanticized but also objectified by the “wise” elder who assumes she needs assistance. Yet this assistance is not warranted, and Miss Rehana, like India, is much better off without it. In fact, both Muhammad Ali and the United Kingdom interfere at the peril of Miss Rehana and India—a narrowly avoided outcome in the narrative but a very damaging reality for Pakistan and India.

Advising someone without knowing anything about them verifies that, like the title suggests and Miss Rehana comments, “[G]ood advice is rarer than rubies” (6). Rubies are a treasure much sought after through bloodshed and conquest. The phrase therefore nods toward the violent complications that can arise when one perceives others as stereotypes—e.g., through the lens of an exoticized and over-simplified “East.” It also hints at the way in which these stereotypes or projected identities simultaneously justify exploitation (i.e., by framing a culture or person as inferior) and conceal it, including to the exploiter, beneath more palatable motives.

Gender is another arena in which this kind of misperception operates, as Rushdie’s depiction of the Tuesday women and broader exploration of The (Western) Male Gaze and Constructions of Femininity demonstrate. Muhammad explains that the sahibs at the consulate believe Tuesday women to be “crooks” attempting to gain passage to England through fraudulent relationships with successful men. The greatest scam of all, however, is that Miss Rehana does in fact deceive the British Consulate, whether intentionally or by accident, to get what she wants, which is to stay in Lahore. Miss Rehana upends every institution placed in front of her—from invasive questioning to arranged marriages to potential scams from wise old men in shantytowns—achieving a measure of independence despite the complexities of identity and power.

The tools characters use to gain independence exemplify this process of subversion. For example, the Consulate’s formal (and needlessly complicated) questioning process wields language to “protect” England from migrants who might seek passage dishonestly. However, Rushdie’s story never depicts such language functioning in its intended way. Not only does the interrogation work to Miss Rehana’s benefit, but Muhammad Ali habitually uses the complex questioning process to frighten women into paying him, all without ever going into the Consulate. The language of the story itself embodies a similar power inversion: British and Punjabi colloquialisms appear throughout the narrative, showing that even in a colonial relationship, cultural power flows in two directions.

Through both irony and satire, the story therefore exposes the deceptive power dynamics surrounding relationships of exploitation, whether person-to-person or nation-to-nation: While one party might seem vulnerable, that perception is illusory and rife with unintended consequences. Miss Rehana is the most powerful agent in the narrative—not Muhammad, not the lalas, not even the Consulate. While true liberation from systems of gender and empire might be beyond her reach, Miss Rehana realizes some freedom despite, and in part because of, the Consulate. The irony is that every gift that the Consulate and Muhammad Ali offer her are nothing compared to the one she receives, and with her closing smile, Muhammad Ali experiences a kind of liberation too.