Does Salman Rushdie smoke?: Yes An old picture of Salman Rushdie while holding a cigarette.Does Salman Rushdie drink alcohol?: Yes Salman Rushdie while holding a glass of alcohol.Salman Rushdie is an Indian born British-American essayist and novelist. The stories on the Indian subcontinent, magical realism and historical fiction like migrations, connections and disruptions between Eastern and Western civilizations are his main genre of writings.In 1981, his second novel clinched the Man Booker Prize. In 1988, his fourth novel The Satanic Verses was full of controversies that led to announce the fatwa of assassination against him from Muslims all over the world. [7]The Conversation In 1989, he was given death threats by the leader of Iran, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, over his book. [8]Britannica.Rushdie was born in Bombay (now Mumbai), British India to a Muslim family of Kashmiri heritage. His father, Anis Rushdie, was once dismissed from the prestigious Indian Civil Services (ICS) after the British government found out that he had produced a forged date of birth proof.It is believed that the husband of Rushdies maternal aunt is the mind behind Pakistans premier intelligence agency- Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI). [9]DNA.Rushdie turned down a scholarship offered by Balliol College, Oxford to attend Kings College, Cambridge, the same college from which his father had once graduated. However, unlike his father who was a bright student, Rushdie could only manage a below-average grade point score of 2.2.After finishing college, Rushdie made an unsuccessful attempt at acting and production; he worked as a small-time actor in London, a television station producer in Karachi and even tried his hands at writing.In one of his writings in 2012, Salman Rushdie penned that his father adopted the surname Rushdie in honour of Averroes (Ibn Rushd).Before becoming a full-time writer, Rushdie worked as a copywriter for advertising agencies like Ogilvy & Mather, and Ayer Barker. During his stint with the latter, he wrote many popular slogans for a number of companies like American Express (Thatll do nicely), Aero Chocolates (irresistibubble), etc.