From Worldcat: "At the stroke of midnight on August 15th, 1947, as India declares independence from Great Britain, babies are being born with super powers. Two of them are switched at birth by a nurse in a Bombay hospital. And so it is that Saleem Sinai, the illegitimate child of a beggar woman, and Shiva, the only son of a wealthy couple, are fated to live the destinies meant for each other. Over the next three decades, Saleem and Shiva find themselves on opposite sides of many a conflict."