Q & A - Vikas Swarup

Experience matters - doesn't matter if it's yours or not but what matters is do you remember it, have you learnt anything from it- if yes then may be you can be next millionaire in vikars swarup's "Q&A" . Every episode Will bring new thrill to you . Sometimes it's escape the other time it will b sadness or justice privale. What matters is luck and experience where it stands for Q&A respectively.l assumed that Q&A will be exactly as the movie" slumdog millionaire" but plot may be same but the experience were different. If you ask me I prefer book more compare to movie. Hope you will also like it.

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What a book it is !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!this book is about a 17-year old bartender who wins 100 million rupees in a quiz show.Since the producer doesn't have the amount to pay, he falsely accuses the bartender of cheating and gets him arrested.But the bartender has correctly answered to all those 12 Questions ( or should I say, 13 Questions !!!!!!!!!!)by dwelling on his past life-experiences.

Overall, its a great book - its simple language, humorous language highlighting various serious issues like INCEST, VOODOO, ESPIONAGE, MATCH-FIXING, CONTRACT KILLING,  FORCED BEGGING, DRUG-ABUSE, EXTRA-MARITAL AFFAIRS................ and the protagonist's perspective towards them..........

Take it from me, you'll forget the movie once you finish reading the book !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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I first saw the movie Slum Dog Millionaire and loved the movie. A lot of my friends and family who also watched the movie told me that it was too graphic and showed India in poor light. This was my universal reply to all of them who hated the movie. I would have agreed with them on the movie showing India in poor light if it was made in the 70s or 80s. However in the present context the movie is just right in its timing. So then what changed after that?

I have lived outside India for many years in my life and I have seen the perception of India change over the years. In the 70s and 80s India was viewed as country that is shown in Slum Dog. In fact the world assumed most of India lived under those conditions. Then came the 90s and the 2000, this is when our techies were going around the world fixing their Y2K bugs. We had Indians like Sabir Battia selling websites for a few 100 million USD and many Indian start ups that made big in the IPOs.

After all these stories the global Indian had truly arrived. Books like the world is flat got written on the important role played by India in shaping the new global economy. After this people started to talk about the malls in India, the growing middle class, how India has a few 100 million cell phone connections, how India will become the world’s largest English speaking population, etc. All these are great coverage for India. So given the current context where the world is only hearing great things about India I feel a movie like Slum Dog and books like White Tiger shows the darker side of India to the rest of the world.

OK so after watching the movie, what do I do? I go ahead and buy the book called “Q&A” based on which the movie was made. When ever I have watched the movie after the book I have felt a huge disappointment. This usually happens when I watch the Harry Potter movies. However this time I felt that the movie and the book are quite different in the story. In the movie besides borrowing the main story line of a boy in the slum winning the TV show, they have taken very little from the book. That way the book has many interesting plots and sub plots. The author brings about a few surprises in the book and each time he makes you gasp at his imagination.

The book is very easy to read and hard to put down once you get started. The story of Ram Mohamed Thomas is very touching and leaves a mark in your heart. You will never see the guy in street the same way again after the book. The romance part was beautifully done by director Danny Boyle in the movie. The book is a little disappointing in the romance bit but has quite a few twists and turns that keep you riveted to the seat till you put this book down. A great read !!

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I would like to call it a good book. Normally its not the kind of books I would pick up to read. And if you are the kind who read only those books that add something to your life, then this is not for you. But it’s a good read by all means. This is easy entertainment, full of fantasy and imagination, total paisa vasool. I first heard about it in my book club where a member was quite fascinated by the BBC serialisation of the book. She could not wait for the next episode she said. What I find really remarkable about the author is the way in which he talks about all the wrong things (!!!) and gets away with it Scot free. He does such a smart and smooth job of it. (No wonder, Swaroop is a diplomat by profession!) The soul of the book is as Indian as it can get, (though quiz shows are quite an international phenomenon.) you can actually smell India in this book. And yet he talks about everything that is a taboo in India – homosexuality, incest, child abuse, forced prostitution – you name it. (And of course religion – how can we miss that?

The name of our hero is Ram Mohammed Thomas to begin with. Can it get more filmi than this?) You come across all these seemingly heavy words and once you are done with the book you suddenly realise its all past and there is nothing nagging you. You feel free. I find it a great feeling, of course I am a lover of happy endings, but the real challenge is to let all these characters find their own way in life and finding a place for themselves in the big bad world. In their own way they deal with these so called nagging issues and move on with life. That’s the crux of being an Indian; commoners who actually live the fact-is-stranger-than-fiction life. I remember reading books like The kite runner or Inheritance of loss. Those kind of books stay with you. There is this distinct disturbing feeling in your gut once you finish them, you cant come out of it, they hit you right where you live. You keep coming back to the characters over and over again.

I love those kind of books. But Q&A is of a complete different genre. There should be more such books coming from the contemporary Indian authors. Any day now I am expecting the book to be made into a high profile bollywood flick. It has all the ingredients for a super hit underdog classic. In short – its easy reading, its fantastic - as fantastic, as colourful, as self contradictory as India itself.

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People born today will win accolades, become famous andwill lead a life of a content man. To add on to your luck, wear a diamond ofthe purest kind!

How many of us have ever thought that one day we will becomefamous, win money through a jackpot or travel the world? Not all but yes a lotof us would have thought about it…what happens when suddenly one day yourdreams like this come true and only you yourself can take credit for it?Thisis what happens in Q and A, the book which I read two days back and which I am trying to review right now!

Q and Ais a book which deals with subtlety of life alongwith dash of spice thrown in right measures. It is no way a classic but yes itmakes a fine reading material. The book can easily be adapted to a bollywoodclassic and I am sure it would be a hit as soon as it hits the theatre…that isthe power of Q and A. The book is a first attempt by Vikas Swarupand he hasdone well…he has not tried to make the book usual but constructed it within theparameters of book writing. The author deserves a pat on his back for doingfull justice to the only character he has in his book and entwining the storyaround him.

Q and A is the story of Ram Mohammad Thomas…that is wherethe readers get hooked…is he a Hindu, a Muslim or a Christian…??? Read the bookto discover how he gets this name…I would not spill the beans…he does'nt belong to a religion but yes...he is what a Hindu, a muslim or a christian can be...he is human and he is the hero of this book!

Coming back toRMT, Q and A is his story…how he lands himself in jail…Nopes! No crimes committed, no Murder mysteries…just a simple stroke of luck!!!

RMTwins a quiz show…and wins 1 billion rupees…Applause!Applause! Hey, but he is a waiter…and he would/should/cannot know the answersof the so-called tricky questions of a game show…that is the reason of hisbeing in jail…as simple as that…! Still wondering what went wrong…even RMT soundedas clueless as you all are…just focus on two facts...RMT is in jail and he is a billionaire!

Q and A is a life story of RMT and his ups and downs…when helands up in jail; he doesn’t quite understand as to why he has beenarrested…and as for knowing the answers…he says: “I do not know all theanswers…I was lucky to have been asked the right questions…for which I knew theanswers”…Q and Arevolves around how RMT finds answers to relatively difficultquestions through the journey of his own life…his life gives him the biggesthints and he is intelligent enough to recognize them!

Q andA also touches briefly on how deep routed our biasesare…what if a waiter wins a quiz show? What is the trouble when Nicholas Cagemarries a waitress and why all hell breaks lose when a rag picker wins acontest to visit Brazil to meet fellow rag pickers…the last incident reportedtoday in the papers…apparently the airlines did not allow the rag picker totravel because he didn’t fit into the image of a “business traveler”!!!

Strange are our ways and how we think about our fellowhumans…the biases are within us and outside us…and the need of the hour is to overpower them…tomake life much more humane and beautiful!

Biases like these ruin the fabric ofthe society and cannot be trivialized…so...the next time, you see a man whodoesn’t fit in any of your biased images, instead of making faces, saying the rude lines...think of him/her as a human and you would realise the difference!!!

Q and A is not an eye opener…it is not a book which makesyou sit back and laugh out loud not does it make you whimper! It is a simplebook which deals with issues that life hurls each day on us…whether we getlucky or not…depends on you!

Like it or leave it!!!

Comments are welcome…book lovers should read this lighthearted book and I am sure you will enjoy it…for others; you can feelcontent/dissatisfied with the review…your take completely!!! Do remember, eachday is lucky for you…make it your best day!

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Q&A by Vikas Swarup has everything to make it big as a bollywood movie. It has a hero, love, revenge, betrayal, violence, action, suspense, thrill, mother sentiment, clichés like hero using a one-rupee coin to decide when in dilemma, lot of melodrama and almost 0% logic at many places. But yet, Vikas makes the book interesting to read, with a unique idea and plot to connect all these elements in a single thread.

It is about how an 18-year-old waiter in a restaurant (strangely) named Ram Mohammed Thomas wins highest amount ever won by a person in the world by participating in a TV quiz game show called Who Will Win a Billion?. The book is nothing but a take on the social and cultural evils of Indian metros through the eyes of an 18-year-old orphan. It can also be said as a biography on adventurous life of an 18-year-old boy broken into 12 episodes and told in a non-linear fashion. I like way the story sequenced in a non-chronological order.

For each question the boy goes back to an incident in his life, which gives him the correct answer. The author cleverly has put this incident first preceding the actual question he was asked in the quiz thereby creating some curiosity in readers mind. We keep guessing which part of the incident in his life has the answer for the question which itself is yet to be revealed to us. But at some places, I felt some incidents happen just for the sake of throwing information with which the boy will win the question especially the initial ones. Each of the episodes is a short story in itself with a fresh starting, a problem coming in the middle and then it getting solved by some heroic actions of the boy in the end. And that makes us keep intrigued even after crossing the incident that we guess to have the answer for the question to be asked.

Initially (before completing the first chapter) I thought that for each question he would correlate lot of incidents in his life and arrive at an answer after lot of analysis but that happens only for two or three questions at that too at the end. The author is more interested on exhibiting the true face of Indians and its pretentious culture. So he covers as many evils in the Indian society as possible but he has interestingly embedded the cause and the consequences of these evils in each episode of Ram’s life. It is quite hard to believe that an 18-year-old guy can have such an experience with the society in real life but who knows the boys in such a social strata may.

The author gradually increases the number of pages of the stories before each question as he reaches to final set of questions. His intention may be to create same curiosity in the readers mind as that in long commercial breaks and thrilling moments in the quiz show before they ask the questions that award the participant with large sum of money. But that doesn’t happen here instead, the stories drag a bit towards the end of the book. But author somehow makes it up with some unexpected twists and turns. If you are going to buy the book, have popcorn by your side and be ready to read the script of a wholesome bollywood masala entertainer that is very much in the making.

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Vikas Swaroop is a good storyteller. This is an excellent story, very well written in elegant language with a touch of sarcasm and tongue-in-cheek humor. For an ivory tower diplomat enmeshed in endless cocktail parties, despite having lived most of his life abroad,author has surprisingly good knowledge & feel of real India! A young poor bartender working in a seedy nightclub, having no formal education, with an unusual name of Ram Mohammed Thomas wins a KBC kind of TV quiz show to claim Rs. 1 Billion by answering all the 12 questions correctly, and gets arrested next day suspected of foul play. Everyone, including the show sponsors, TV Channel, Police, and the readers as well want to know, how can an uneducated poor bar boy answer all the questions correctly? There starts a very interesting story. A Good Samaritan lawyer bails him out and wants to know the truth. RMT starts telling the truth by taking us down his life story right from the time his mother abandoned him as an infant in front of a Church in Paharganj-Delhi and up to his appearance at the quiz show. The story presented in a flash back mode has very interesting format; every question asked in the quiz show takes RMT to one chapter of his life and unveils how that particular chapter of his life lead him to correctly answer the question! RMT takes us through various stages of his life which is full of tumultuous, hard struggle, yet is a fantastic journey full of variety, depth and plethora of experiences. RMT in his 19 years of age has learnt & experienced much more than what others would not even in 100 years! It is a great story full of sharply etched, distinctive, memorable collection of interesting characters ( a-la Sholay)some of them so loveable. I have been having domestic servants for over 20 years and have seen those poor, uneducated boys& girls from remote villages from all corners of India , adapting themselves to the Delhi kind of Metro life so fast, assimilating & imbibing information at lightening speeds and some of them becoming Computer savvy in addition to operating all the gadgets at home. It is fascinating to see the innate potential and latent talent which can blossom if only they get right kind of breaks like RMT does in the book .I am adding this paragraph only to attest to the fact that the way RMT learns & imbibes knowledge and absorbs information, may appear incredulous, but I have personally seen it happening. The book has one shortcoming though; entire story is narrated by RMT in first person, the articulation, sophisticated language, usage of technical jargon etc. is clearly incredulous. Apart from this, it is a beautiful story, so touching and so well written like a screen play. It must be made into movie. I have already made casting decisions if someone would like to consult me. I end this review with an invitation to the readers to write back, who would they like ( from Bollywood) to play which character if this book were to be made into a movie?

I am glad that the book finally got made into a movie, " slumdog millionnaire" and won umpteen hearts as well as awards. Inspite of superb work by Danny Boyle and the cast & crew of the film, I did not like the change of the story. I liked the book a lot more!

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Should the name of a child be based on his religion? How does one decide what to call an orphan? Was s/he born a Hindu, a Muslim, or a Christian? Does it even matter? The answer for our hero was simple. Just get a member of each religious community to come up with a name and slap ?em together. And we have Ram Mohammad Thomas, a name that spells trouble and doom, and brings with the promise of a life full of hardship and adventure.

An orphan from crippled recesses of Asia?s largest slum, Dharavi find himself much closer to a billion rupees after winning a relatively new game show called W3B (Who Will Win a Billion?). The producers of the show, who are in no position to dole out such a sum right at the beginning of the series, are obviously not happy with this, and have Ram arrested for fraud. After all how could this poor soul who has had no formal education answer 12 questions accurately?

However, soon after his arrest, he is bailed out by his lawyer, who seems to be the only friend he has left. Ram starts narrating the story of his life and takes us on an exciting adventure from the orphanages and Churches of New Delhi to the slums of Mumbai; from working as an in-house servant of an erstwhile famous bollywood actress, to conducting tour guide to the Taj Mahal. I must warn you though; there are some parts that one might find disturbing.

The book has it all, a hero, a love interest, bad guys, guns, cops and robbers, and last but not the least, a happy ending. It moves at a surprisingly fast pace, and since it is told by our hero Ram, it is written in the simplest of language. I?d read a review about his book in either Outlook and India Today and it didn?t have a lot of good things to say about it. However, I just had a feeling when I looking for a new book to buy at the Corner Bookstore inside one of the Barista?s. I just had to buy it.

There?s really nothing new about the story. As I said, it has it all. In fact, add about 10-15 crappy songs and a little ?acceptable? nudity and viola, you have a Hindi movie. However, the book has been written very carefully. Mr. Swarup, at many times hovers close the not-so-thin line between the-same-old-story told differently and the-same-old-movie. I?m guessing this is his first book. I must confess that I was a little put off at times by the crudity of the language, but once I got past the first 50 pages or so I just kept going and the journey turned out to be worth it.

I believe I have mentioned everything I could without ruining the book for anyone, so I?ll just end this review by saying that it was a very inspiring story; a story about the struggle and pain of life and the very hard decision of never giving up and always wanting more than what has been given to you. So if any of you are feeling a little low, and don?t know which way to go, go to the nearest library or book store and get yourself a copy of this book. It?s the kind of book that all sorts of people should enjoy.

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I picked up this book on basis of the excellent reviews that this book has received in the various newspapers and magazines.

This book by Vikas Swaroop takes reader through the bizarre life of Ram Mohammad Thomas, after he has been arrested for winning a TV show called Who Wants Win A Billion?

The story has been narrated in a different style where each question is related in someway or the other to an event in the Ram's life. The author has used events from the present times such as the show 'Kaun Banega Karodpati' to the highest number of centuries scored by Scahin Tendulkar (name Sachin Malvankar in the book) to add a touch of reality to the whole narrative. The language is simple and as the book is set in the India, with the story swtiching between Mumbai, Delhi and Agra, one can easily identify with the progress of the story.

The author has ensured that at no point of time the pace slackens and after a few chapters, I was looking for the event that would lead to Ram answering the question thrown at him, correctly.

I read this book, having 302 pages in 3 hours flat, as it is gripping as well as an interesting read, how a street smart kids goes on to win a Billion bucks, a wife and a life long friend, en route to success.

I would rate this book higher than the 'Da Vinci Code' and is a must read for one and all.

I don't think that Vikas Swaroop has written any other books till date, and going by this one, I am certainly looking forward to his next creation.

A notice to all the people who are members of the India Today Book Club:They have given the cost of this book as Rs 990/- and claim to give saving to the members of Rs 655/-. This is a fraud, as the printed price on the jacket is Rs 395/- and members of the Indiatimes Book Club can get it even cheaper as I did for Rs 335/-.

If anyone of you who reads this review and is a member of the India Toady Book Club, please do not get cheated by them.

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