Q&A Slumdog millionaire blog #12 X GKRZ OPKNU (or a love story)

     In this chapter GKRZ OPKNU (or a love story) Ram talks about his story where he stays in Agra for a year. At first he didn't have any money after losing fifty thousand rupees from the train, so he decides to pick pocket out of the garbage for left over food. Then he see's an entrance to the Taj Mahal (mausoleum in Agra) and finds out that there are tourists there from foreign countries such as people from Japan. When the Guide man talks about how the Taj Mahal was built and the stories of how it was made, Ram listens carefully. So the japanese tourists asks him a few questions and he guides the japanese man and he gains fifty rupees from that. When he's on the streets with no food, he meets up with another homeless boy who's named Shankar, but has speech defects and can only speak in random syllables. Shankar showed Ram to a marble mansion and inside the mansion was a Madam who was very rich and offered Ram to stay in one of the outhouses for four hundred rupees per week. Ram said yes to the Madam because he knew that being a guide to other tourists in Taj Mahal could be a great benefit for the rent. Ram falls in love with a prostitute named Nita but as time went on, he found out that Shankar had developed human rabies because he was bit by a wild dog and the only way to save him was to get four hundred thousand rupees for the vaccine called RabCure. Although, no one lent him the money and he was left to die in sorrow. Then eventually, Nita was sent to a palace and was beaten and the only way her Brother would let Nita marry Ram was if he got four hundred thousand rupees and he did. But instead he gave it to a man who also needed the money for the vaccine for his child because he found out that there was a show called Who wants to be a billionaire in Mumbai. Smita turns on the TV and the show continues. Prem Kumar asks Ram the eleventh question: which one if Shakespeare's plays is there a character called Costard? Is it a) King Lear, b) the Merchant of Venice, c) Love's Labour's Lost or d) Othello? he decides to take a leap of fate and calls the man who he helped saved his son's life from Agra and asks him the question. Ram then answers with c) and wins one hundred million rupees.  

Q&A Slumdog millionaire blog #11 Tragedy Queen

     In this chapter Tragedy Queen, Ram talks about the time he spent with an actress named Neelima Kumari for three years in her flat in Juhu Vile Parle and also worked as a servant for her. Neelima had a choice to either choose Salim or Ram to be a servant and work for her, but she chose Ram over Salim just because Salim was a muslim and Neelima's mother did not like Muslims. Also, another reason is because Ram can speak english and has more advanced skills when it comes to serving a famous actress. Ram didn't find his life with a movie star was not as glamorous as he thought it would be since Neelima's mother complained about Ram not being able to do all of the chores and errands at once. Also whenever they go out for shopping, Neelima shows off her money by spending fifty thousand rupees on cosmetics and clothes, but only buys Ram some icecream. After living with Neelima for awhile, she shows him 140 movies in her video cassette in which she used to act in and he was astonished of how far she's gone in only a few years of her career. After, she starts to act a bit strange because she gets bruises and cuts every morning when she wakes up and Ram thinks its because of her past in which her mother died at eighty one. Eventually, she commited suicide and was known as the Tragedy Queen. Smita then turns on the TV and the show continues. Prem Kumar asks the tenth question which is: What is the length of the Palk Strait between India and Sri Lanka? The choices are going to be a) 64 km, b) 94 km, c) 137 km, and d) 209 km and answers C. But is only the test question. The real question was: is Neelima Kumari, the Tragedy queen, won the National Award in which year? Was it a) 1984, b) 1988, c) 1986, or d) 1985? Ram answered D. 1985 and won ten million rupees.

Q&A Slumdog millionaire blog #10 Licence To Kill

     In this chapter Licence to Kill, Ram talks about meeting his best friend Salim after not seeing him for five years and he says he didn't want to at first but then when they both sat down on the bench lwatching at little kids play football, they realized how much they missed each other and started talking about the past. Salim talked about his past where he was so close to becoming a famous artist in Hindu films because he asked Mukesh Rawal if he could be apart of a short-film and he replied with "Only if you manage to take some professional pictures and until you show me them, you will become a Junior artist." Junior artists are only in a few scenes of the film and are only about three seconds on the screen. Salim managed to escape from a mob that was going to burn him in a bus that he was on, but luckily a man named Ahmed had a gun threatened the mob to not hurt Salim and took him to his home. Ahmed was a man who loved to bet on Indian cricket games and always won.  After living with Ahmed for awhile, he noticed that strange things were happening. Things such as Ahmed receiving letters that contain information on a person and then a few weeks later, it is announced on the criminal news that he/she has been murdered. Eventually, Salim found out that he was the hitman and killer behind all of this. Smita turned on the TV and so the quiz show began, with Prem Kumar asking the ninth question "How many Test centuries has India's greatest batsman Sachin Malvankar scored? Your choices are a) 34, b) 35, c) 36, or d) 37 and answered c) 36 and won a million rupees.

Q&A Slumdog millionaire blog #9 A Soldier's Tale

     In the chapter A Soldier's Tale, Ram tells Smita that he met this man who was apart of the Indian army that tells him a story about his war experiences in the past. Balwant Singh Damle, the old man tells his story about his past war experience and makes a statement that what's happening now isn't a real war compared to the past wars. He says the last war that happened was on December third 1971 and that he was happy to be blessed with his wife's luck before he fought in the war. Balwant found a Pakistan soldier begging for mercy but then Balwant asks him "what would you have done if you were in the same position?" and the Pakistan soldier said he'd kill him. So, Balwant pulled the trigger, shooting through his heart and afterwards he cremated the dead soldier. Then he continues on with his story about him losing his left leg because a hail of bullets shot it. Although he still manages to survive and raise a tricolored flag on the Mandiala Bridge. Colonels came to visit and talk about how good the Prime Minister and all the donations are going for the army. But soon, one Colonel finds out that Balwant is just a deserter who left Chhamb sector on the first sight of trouble and all the stories he told were just a lie and his leg was blown off by Pakistani Air Force bombing. The Colonel became really frustrated so he hung Balwant in his room and left. Smita then turns on the TV and Prem Kumar asks Ram the eighth question which was "Which is the highest award for gallantry given to the Indian armed forces? Is it a) Maha Vir Chakra, b) Param Vir Chakra, c) Shaurya Chakra or d) Ashok Chakra?" Ram answerd B and won five hundred thousand rupees.

Q&A Slumdog millionaire blog #8 Murder on the western express

     In the chapter Murder on the Western Express, Ram tells his story about his express train ride to Mumbai so that he could meet Salim there. Ram boards the Paschim Express, but first he hired a porter to carry his brown suitcase which contained a few clothes, some old toys, a bunch of Australian Geographic Magazines and electronic game for Salim. Ram is a smart guy because he did not put any money into the suitcase because he heard stories that there are robbers on trains that drug you into falling asleep, then taking all your valuable items and money. Ram pays the porter twenty-two rupees for his service and leaves off. Then, he gets into the train and notices that the cabin he's in contains six berths. Four of the berths are for the family which are for the Father, Mother, Son and daughter. I find it funny because of how easily Ram can get distracted, especially by the daughter who got his attention like a magnet. He couldn't stop looking at her beauty, but suddenly a baby starts crying and is breast feeded by it's mother. I also find it amusing that Ram tries to peek at the mother's breasts while breast feeding the baby, but the Father of the other family noticed that he was, so he stopped. Somehow, Ram manages to get a digital watch made from Japan which costs two hundred rupees. Eventually, the son named Akshay introduces himself and his sister named Meenakshi who lived in Delhi and are also heading to Mumbai to attend their uncle's wedding. After Akshay and Ram talk about games and other things, Ram tells him that he has fifty-thousand rupees in his underwear (where he keeps all his money) but Akshay refuses to believe him until he is shown the money and power that Ram has. Ram relates his fifty thousand rupees to feeling like he has five million because of how much power and mind blowing it can be when shown to other people. Unfortunetely, the stories about robbery in the express that he was told about was true because a dacoity informs everyones attention and tells them to get off their berths. The baby cries again and the dacoity (theif) tells the mother to breast feed the baby, and as soon as she pulls up her blouse, he grabs her breasts. Then he makes a threat to everyone saying that if they don't hand in all their valuables into the brown bag, he'll kill all the passengers on the train. Everyone gives up their valuables but Meenakshi is harassed/violated by the dacoity in which he rips off her shirt, leaving her to be exposed with only her bra on. When the dacoity is about to leave, Akshay tells the dacoity that Ram has fifty thousand rupees in his underwear and makes him hand it over. When he handed the money over, the baby jumps from the mother's lap and lunges at the dacoity's face and right before he his about to pull the trigger on the baby's chest, Ram shoots the dacoity and is left on the floor dead. This part really put me in confusion because I don't understand how a baby can just jump out of a mother's lap and lunge at his face. When the police were coming to investigate the crime scene, Ram decides to jump out and ride random trains to different locations because he thought that if he went to Mumbai, Akshay would tell the police all about him and Salim would get arrested. Smita then presses play on the remote and turns the TV back on for the two hundred thousand rupees, which the seventh question was "Who invted the revolver? Was it a) Samuel Colt, b) Bruce Browning, c) Dan Wesson or d) James revolver and Ram answered A) Samuel Colt, winning two hundred thousand rupees.

Q&A Slumdog millionaire blog #7 Hold on to your buttons

     In this chapter Hold on to your buttons, Ram tells Smita about his story as a bartender. When Ram served as a bartender at Jimmy's Bar and Restaurant, he had to deal with a lot of drunkards and he made a classification about all the drunkards which were by animal. It was horses first who drank the most, then asses who babble and cry over more whisky rum or peg, dogs who will start an argument over anything and then pigs who vomit after drinking their last peg. There was another bartender who worked at the bar and her name was Rosie which entices alot of customers to buy more expensive pegs by bending over and showing her cleavage. I found it weird when Ram makes a conscious decision not to meet up with his best friend Salim because they've been through a alot of things together. Ram only has his mid shifts from twelve AM to one thirty AM and usually drunkards who fall asleep are taken outside into a taxi somewhere else. One night a lone customer refuses to budge and moans out words "My dear brother, my dear brother." every two minutes while on his fifth peg. Ram asks him about what happened to his brother and the drunkard named Prakash Rao, who is the Managing Director of Surya Industries. The biggest manufacturer of buttons in India. Then Prakasha Rao tells Ram about his story about his brother Arvind. At first Arvind was the managing Director of Surya Industries and then employed his brother with the sales division and eventually Arvind had confidence in Prakash, so he promoted him as Head of International Sales and sent him to New York. But then Prakash met this girl named Julie, which he thought was a normal girl at first but then she tells him to steal some money from the button company. Sadly, he follows her orders and his brother finds out that he stole about a million rupees and calls Prakash names, also abusing him as a punishment. Prakash finds out that Julie does voodoo and basically makes a voodoo doll out of his brother's hair and button which allowed Prakash to get revenge on his brother. As he inflicted pain to Arvind, people think he's becoming insane and was sent to a mental institutional hospital. Prakash realized that what he was doing was wrong but before he can save his brother, Arvind was killed in the aslyum. After telling the story, Prakash gets a heart attack.Smita thinks Ram could be lying about that story but then she plays the remote on the TV and the quiz show begins. Prem Kumar asks Ram "What is the capital of Papua New Guinea? Is it a) Port Louis, b) Port-au-Prince, c) Port Moresby or d) Port Adelaide?" Ram answers C and wins one-hundred thousand rupees on the sixth question.

Q&A Slumdog millionaire blog #6 How to speak Australian

     In this chapter How to speak Australian, Ram talks about his story when he was being taken care of by the Taylors. New characters named Colonel Taylor and Mrs Taylor were introduced in this chapter. Ram finds out that Mrs Taylor doesn't like Indians and think their all snobbish because they're mostly servants to them. Ram dosen't like her statement and how she thinks about all Indians in general so he tries to talk in an Australian accent. Although, Ram is being taken care of and treated well by the Australians because he can speak English. I find that knowing how to speak english can benefit Ram's life in a positive way because people who have power that are from a foreign country make use of the english speaker and treat them better than others. Although that is unjust because in my opinion I think that everyone should be treated the same way, no matter what language they speak. Ram then finds out that Colonel Taylor has an office room in which no one is aloud to enter, otherwise anyone who tries to attempt to forcibly open the office's door will be shocked to death by it's padlock that contains an electricutor. Spending time with the Taylors has helped Ram forget about the traumatic events in Mumbai, with Shantaram, and Salim. Ram feels so comfortable living with the Taylors that he says he could imagine his name changing to Ram Mohammad Taylor because even Roy and Maggie (their kids) include him in every activity that they do. Eventually, Ramu (another servant) tells and shows Ram that he stole Maggie's red bra and Colonel Taylor finds out and tells the police inspectors to take Ramu away into the Red flashing jeep. Smita then plays the quiz show video and Prem Kumar asks Ram, When a government declares a foreign diplomat persona non grata, what does it means? Is it a) that the diplomat is to be honoured, b) that the diplomat's tenure should be extended, c) that the diplomat is grateful or d) that the diplomat is not acceptable? Ram answers D and is correct, winning fifty-thousand rupees.

Q&A Slumdog millionaire blog #5 A Thought For The Crippled

     In this chapter A Thought For The Crippled, Ram talks about his story when he was taken to the Delhi Juvenile Home for Boys, in Turkman gate after being picked from the church after Father Timothy's death. In the Delhi Juvenile Home, he also meets up with a boy named Salim who becomes his best friend after being told about his past which was his family being burnt to death by Hindus because they thought that a Muslim family desecrated the idol of the monkey God. They also became best friends because when a character named Mr Gupta, who is the Terror of Turkman Gate who is short, hairy man who chews paan all day and wears two thick gold chains around his neck. One night Mr Gupta called Salim over and tried to sexual harass him, but Ram had a flashback and screamed, waking up everyone in the Juvenile and saving Salim. Then Ram and Salim were taken to a Carnival and were given ten rupees each. At the Carnival they met up with a palmist but had to spend all their rupees to know about their future. The palmist named Panditji predicted that Salim will become a great famous actor but Ram will have a bad future. So Ram took Salim and told Panditji that what he was doing was a waste of time. Although Panditji gave Ram a lucky coin in which many miracles happened afterwards. They were taken to Mumbai by a famous director of Bollywood, Sethji off Gupta for a few rupees. In Mumbai they made a few friends, although most of the kids there were punished because they weren't able to sing and were crippled. At the end of the story they manage to escape into a train away from Goregaon towards the centre of the vast metropolis. Smita turns on the TV and presses play and Prem Kumar (the host of the quiz show) asks Ram, Surdas, the blind poet, was a devotee of which God: a) Ram, b) Krishna, c) Shiva, or d) Brahma? Ram answers b) Krishna and wins ten thousand rupees.

Q&A Slumdog millionaire blog #4 A Brother's Promise

     In this Chapter A Brother's Promise, another sad story is being told by Ram which is relevant to life because what his friend experienced happens in people's daily lives. First, Ram talks about his daily horoscope that says "he should take a good look at all sides of an issue before making a decision". Which means that he should think before he acts which is a very good advice in my opinion because it'll help him live life easier. A new character named Mr Ramakrishna, the administrator of the chawl is introduced in this chapter. Salim and Ram are told that new tenants will be moving in the room next to theirs. Ram meets a girl named Gudiya who is older than him and lives with her father Mr Shantaram who is an astronomer science. But soon, Ram finds out that Mr Shantaram has an alchohol addiction which leads to abuse and molestation to his daughter Gudiya. Ram finds out by putting a steal cup against the wall to hear everything thats going on in the adjacent room which I find smart because I would be curious to know what my room mates are talking about too. At one point Gudiya gets her face burnt with a first degree burn and she is about to be molested by her father but Ram finds out there is a hole he can put his hand through, so he did and made a promise that he will protect her because she says he's like a brother she's never had before. Although, near the end of the chapter, Ram takes action and pushes Mr Shantaram down the stairs and runs away because he wanted to take action and keep his promise that he made to Gudiya. In the end of the chapter, Smita remains quiet for the whole time while Ram was telling the story and the third question for the show was "Which is the smallest planet in our solar system? Is it a) Pluto, b) Mars, c) Neptune or d) Mercury?" Ram answered with A) Pluto and got it correct and won five thousand rupees.

Q&A Slumdog millionaire blog #3 The Burden of a Priest

     In the third chapter The Burden of a Priest, Ram talks about his childhood and story of when he was a baby. I found his story really sad and depressing which was the reason why he ended up being a slumdog and an un-educated child. The story was about his memory of him being born in an J. J. Women's Hospital on the day of Christmas but was abandoned by his mother and had a visual of the scene when she ran out of the hospital during the night and wrapped Ram in a blanket to keep him comfortable when she placed him in a bin. I find that part really sad but he was found by the Sisters of St Mary who ran an orphanage, he was put up for adoption. Unfortunetly no one wanted to take him because of his looks and the way smiled, but Mr and Mrs Thomas decided that they did. Sadly, Mrs Thomas ditched Mr Thomas for someone else, so Mr Thomas decided to take the baby and give it to Father Timothy (Priest) because he thought it was bad luck. After that, Father Timothy took care of the baby until he turned older and Ram thought of Father Timothy as his actual loving father but eventually two other people came and told Father Timothy that the baby could have been Hindu or Muslim so they came up with the name Ram Mohammad Thomas. Eventually, Father Timothy was killed by the two people and Ram's memories of that will never fade away. Although that story related to the who wants to be a Billionaire question which was "What is the sequence of letters normally inscribed on a cross? Is it a) IRNI b) INRI, c) RINI or d) NIRI and he answered correctly with b) INRI because of the white cross he saw at church.

Q&A Slumdog millionaire blog #2

     In the first chapter of Slumdog millionaire called "The Death of a Hero" Ram Mohammad Thomas talks about  his story at the theatres with his friend named Salim. Salim is Ram's best friend who is crazy for Hindi films, but mostly ones that feature Armaan Ali who is an action hero of the film that they are watching. I find this chapter amusing because of how much Salim talks about Armaan Ali and it seems like he daydreams about him whenever he watches one of his films. Salim even compliments Armaan by telling Ram that Armaan is handsome and says that he would comfort Armaan in his arms when he thinks he has lost everything. But the weird part was when an old man with a beard decides to show up and sit right beside Salim and rubs his jeans sexually during some sad scenes of the film. I found that really awkward, especially for Salim because he didn't thought the old man was just suffering from tremors on his leg until he tried to sexually harass him. There were some harsh content in this chapter but I would probably do the same if I were in Salim's shoes. As Ram was telling the story about that day to Smita, it shows how he answered the first question correctly in the Who Will Be a Billionaire quiz. The first question of the quiz was "Can you name the blockbusting film in which Armaan Ali starred with Priya Kapoor for the very first time. Was it a) Fire, b) Hero, c) Hunger, or d) Betrayal?" Ram answered D. Betrayal and was correct, winning one thousand rupees so far.

Q&A Slumdog millionaire blog #1

In the prologue of "Q&A Slumdog millionaire" the author (Vikas Swarup) introduces the protagonist of the novel, Ram Mohammad Thomas. Ram is just an ordinary under-classed kid who works at a restaurant in Dharavi, but when he answered all twelve questions correctly on TV's Who Will Win a Billion? People such as the cops were suspicious about it, but mostly because he has never gone to school and has never read a newspaper. What happened during one night, was that cops broke into his door and arrested him for winning a quiz show and was taken away into a police station. Even though he was screaming and kicking for help, no one had helped him because they also thought he didn't deserve all the money from the quiz show. To be honest, they should have been more considerate and asked him questions without having to do it physically and assuming that he just cheated to win. Although Dharavi is a pretty strict country in my opinion just because someone won and their considered as under-classed, doesn't mean they cheated. I believe that Ram is just gifted and no luck or cheating was needed to win the quiz show. Also Johnson, one of the cops say that apparently the show is suppose to be scripted and they were expecting that no one would win W3B within eight months but suddenly Ram surprised them and won. So the show company's investments and ad revenues were corrupted because Ram ruined their plan. Also, I find it interesting that Ram does not say anything to protest his innocents, otherwise the cops might have been even more suspicious about it. Other characters that were in the prologue are: The Commissioner, Nanda, Johnson, Billy and Godbole. At first, the Commissioner had a doubt that Ram cheated to win, because he talked about Einstein coming from a poor background and being a high-school drop-out also. Then Nanda thought of an idea to prove that Ram is no Einstein by asking him to answer four more questions in another mini quiz. He answered all four wrong, but even when he did, they had no proof of evidence that he cheated. It really surprised me when Ram was saved by a lawyer named Smita Shah who after asks him about how he won, but tries to get answers without having to force him to speak up. Although, he flipped a coin and it landed on heads so he told her he won it by luck.