Slumdog Millionaire by Vikas Swarup (Penguin)

“I have been arrested. For winning a quiz show.” says Ram Mohammad Thomas, the hero of Vikas Swarup’s novel Slumdog Millionaire. This book was originally published as “Q&A” but was given a new title after the success of the movie adaptation. Ram Mohammad Thomas has successfully answered twelve questions correctly on India’s popular quiz show, “Who Will Win a Billion?” but the producers of the show think the only way he could have won is by cheating. 

Ram lives in Dharavi, one of the largest slums in the poorest area of Mumbai. The authorities come for him in the middle of the night. Arrests here are “as common as pickpockets on the local train.” This is an area where people are often carted off without any explanation. As Ram is led away, he hears a voice in the neighborhood say, “There goes another one”. 

Neil Johnson and Billy Nanda, two people involved with the quiz program come to the police station to talk to Ram. Johnson asks the show’s producer, Nanda if Ram even understands English to which he replies “How can you expect him to speak English? He’s just a dumb waiter in some godforsaken restaurant, for Chrissake!”

Johnson pleads with the police commissioner to help prove that Ram cheated on the quiz show. They do not take any notice of Ram who is still in the room because he is just a waiter and “waiters don’t understand English”. The commissioner asks what’s in it for him and Ram hears two words - “ten percent”. 

Ram is then taken away and is beaten and tortured for hours on end. Ram knows he will sign a confession statement if the beatings continue, however, before Ram can sign any statement, he is saved from the police by a woman who claims to be his lawyer and is immediately released from police custody.

The lawyer says she wants to help Ram prove he did not cheat on the show. She tells him she has a copy of the entire quiz show broadcast and says “If you didn’t cheat, I must know how you knew”. Ram tells her what he told the police, that he just knew the answers. He then begins to tell his story of how each question on the quiz show was related to an episode in his life. 

The life of Ram Mohammed Thomas reads like a Shakespearean tragedy blended with the comedy of the absurd. Fortune and misfortune rules his life. An orphan who has to use his brain and wits to survive and succeed in a very seedy world.

The story is humorous at times and can also be read as an indictment against India’s class system that still seems to be prevalent today. You cannot help but root for Ram in his case against the injustices of a highly corrupt system. You will laugh and you will cry and you may wish your life was just as lucky as Ram’s without having to deal with the misfortunes.. ~Ernie Hoyt