Summary
From page one to page 210, Ram has won a million rupees already. During the first one-third section of the book, Ram won 10 thousand rupees. Now by the end of the second-third of the book, he won a million already from the quiz show. However, the stories behind his reasons for answering the questions correctly, are not so good.
Through his stories, Ram traveled from place to place - or, more specially, ran away from one place to other by events that took place in his life. He worked at a home of an Australian family who had a father who was the "Man Who Knows" everything. Ram soon found out he was secretly an illegal spy and secretly reported Colonel Taylor himself. Since Colonel Taylor was to be deported with his family, Ram was able to receive all this earnings of 52 thousand rupees on his dismissal. With that money, he bought expensive watch, clothes and a coach train ticket back to Mumbai, with the remainder of 50 thousand rupees ensconced safely inside his underwear. Unfortunately, while he sleeps on the train, he is awoken by a dacoit (Indian criminal) who strips the passengers of the train of their valuables and money, including Ram's. Before the dacoit makes his departure, he ordered a young girl that Ram fell in love with to reveal her breast or she will be killed. Eventually, somehow, Ram gets hold of the criminal's gun and shoots him (he doesn't even know how). When he realized what happened, he ran away from the train, and kept on switching on and off of random trains, not knowing their destinations. He ends up in Agra where he stays for a while until he heads back to Mumbai to attend the quiz show. On his arrival in Mumbai, he encounters Salim after five long years and learns of his story of living and working in a home of a secret serial murderer, and his victory of escaping the home and turning the murderer in to the police (even if the murderer had previously saved his life). Salim also spoke of his acting school and how he was promised by a producer to be a movie star hero. Meanwhile, Ram still does not have the nerves to tell Salim of his plan of attending the quiz show.
Within these pages, Ram also witness the suicidal hanging of an ex-soldier who lied about being a hero in the war and he learned of the story of Julie, the Haitian voodoo women who took advantage of a guy Ram met at the bar he worked at.
Quote
"First there are advertisements. This war is sponsored by Mother India toothpaste and Jolly Tea" (Swarup 167).
Reaction
When I first read this, I stopped and laughed. Then I reread it over more than three times and laughed every time. Ram in sitting in front of the TV watching the news of the war of India vs. Pakistan, and all of the sudden there are advertisement of random companies supporting sponsoring the news. But Ram says that the war is sponsored by them, making it seem like these companies are the ones responsible for the war between the two countries. I thought that was funny.
Sunday, January 23, 2011
Friday, January 21, 2011
Q & A (1-102)
Summary
The beginning of this book-to-film novel Q & A by Vikas Swarup is very interesting and inviting. It starts off with the arrest of Ram Mohammad Thomas, the protagonists and the speaker. He is arrested for winning a quiz show in India with a billion rupees prize (which is about 22 million US dollars). Because the company that features the show does not really have a billion rupees to give away, they accuse Ram of cheating on the quiz show. Since Ram is only a waiter and has never been to school, the company convinced themselves that it'll be easy to prove he cheated. But it is not because Ram did not cheat. He tried to explain himself but the officers and the founder of the show would not cooperate with him. He was physically abused by the police officer until a lawyer, Ms. Smita, came to rescue him and defend him without any permission. Now he is at her house telling her the story behind every question he got right from the quiz show. Every chapter of the book focuses on the story behind every single question from the quiz show that able him to answer the question correctly.
From the stories so far, I learned that Ram was abandoned in a dumpster near a church after he was born. He was taken to an orphanage where he was to be adopted. He was finally adopted by a Thomas family but three days later was abandoned again when the Thomas' marriage was ruined. They blamed Ram for the breakup and give him away to Father Timothy, a priest. During his long childhood with Father Timothy, Ram received the name of Ram Mohammad Thomas, which contained a mixture of a Hindu, Muslim, and Christian religion names since no one knew his real religion. He witnessed the burdens and secrets of many priest, including Father Timothy's. When all the secrets was out, Father Timothy and another priest was murdered in the church and that was the end of Ram's life with his favorite "dad". He was placed in a juvenile home where he met his best friend, Salim who lost all his family in a fire. Together they were adopted by Sethji (Ram was purchased for free) who they thought was the best man on Earth until they learned his dirty secret that he handicaps the people he adopts and makes them sing on train stations to make money for him. They quickly ran away together to avoid loosing a body part or eyesight. Also, I learned about Salim & Ram's encounters with a famous movie start that Ram really loved but turned out to be gay and almost molested him. He hated him and tore up all this posters after his discovery. Ram on the other hand, became a "brother" for a next door neighbor that was abused by her father. But once he had enough and stroke the father with a metal stick, Ram ran far away to avoid being hanged.
A lot has happened so far but all these events helped Ram answer the first four questions of the quiz show correctly. He has 8 more questions and stories to tell before he reaches his billion rupees mark and prove that he had not cheated.
Quote
"The sun seems weaker, the birds less chirpy, the air more polluted, the sky a shade darker" (Swarup 73).
Reaction
I like this quote. It has a lot of imagery and symbolism. This is the first sentence to the fourth section/chapter of the book. When I read this, I could tell that something was not right or that something bad was going to happen in this chapter. That was the symbolism and foreshadowing. As it turned out, Ram was in a bad situation at the juvenile home and even when he was finally adopted with Salim, his adopted "owner" that he thought was a great man really was not a great man. He ended up running away with Salim to a better scenery to avoid the danger.
The beginning of this book-to-film novel Q & A by Vikas Swarup is very interesting and inviting. It starts off with the arrest of Ram Mohammad Thomas, the protagonists and the speaker. He is arrested for winning a quiz show in India with a billion rupees prize (which is about 22 million US dollars). Because the company that features the show does not really have a billion rupees to give away, they accuse Ram of cheating on the quiz show. Since Ram is only a waiter and has never been to school, the company convinced themselves that it'll be easy to prove he cheated. But it is not because Ram did not cheat. He tried to explain himself but the officers and the founder of the show would not cooperate with him. He was physically abused by the police officer until a lawyer, Ms. Smita, came to rescue him and defend him without any permission. Now he is at her house telling her the story behind every question he got right from the quiz show. Every chapter of the book focuses on the story behind every single question from the quiz show that able him to answer the question correctly.
From the stories so far, I learned that Ram was abandoned in a dumpster near a church after he was born. He was taken to an orphanage where he was to be adopted. He was finally adopted by a Thomas family but three days later was abandoned again when the Thomas' marriage was ruined. They blamed Ram for the breakup and give him away to Father Timothy, a priest. During his long childhood with Father Timothy, Ram received the name of Ram Mohammad Thomas, which contained a mixture of a Hindu, Muslim, and Christian religion names since no one knew his real religion. He witnessed the burdens and secrets of many priest, including Father Timothy's. When all the secrets was out, Father Timothy and another priest was murdered in the church and that was the end of Ram's life with his favorite "dad". He was placed in a juvenile home where he met his best friend, Salim who lost all his family in a fire. Together they were adopted by Sethji (Ram was purchased for free) who they thought was the best man on Earth until they learned his dirty secret that he handicaps the people he adopts and makes them sing on train stations to make money for him. They quickly ran away together to avoid loosing a body part or eyesight. Also, I learned about Salim & Ram's encounters with a famous movie start that Ram really loved but turned out to be gay and almost molested him. He hated him and tore up all this posters after his discovery. Ram on the other hand, became a "brother" for a next door neighbor that was abused by her father. But once he had enough and stroke the father with a metal stick, Ram ran far away to avoid being hanged.
A lot has happened so far but all these events helped Ram answer the first four questions of the quiz show correctly. He has 8 more questions and stories to tell before he reaches his billion rupees mark and prove that he had not cheated.
Quote
"The sun seems weaker, the birds less chirpy, the air more polluted, the sky a shade darker" (Swarup 73).
Reaction
I like this quote. It has a lot of imagery and symbolism. This is the first sentence to the fourth section/chapter of the book. When I read this, I could tell that something was not right or that something bad was going to happen in this chapter. That was the symbolism and foreshadowing. As it turned out, Ram was in a bad situation at the juvenile home and even when he was finally adopted with Salim, his adopted "owner" that he thought was a great man really was not a great man. He ended up running away with Salim to a better scenery to avoid the danger.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)