Q & A

Vikas Swarup

I have been arrested. For winning a quiz show. They came for me late last night, when even the stray dogs had gone to sleep. There are those who say I brought this on myself. After all, what business does a penniless waiter have to be participating in a brain quiz?

How a penniless waiter from Mumbai became the biggest quiz-show winner in history…
Eighteen-year-old Ram Mohammad Thomas is in prison after answering twelve questions correctly on a TV quiz show to win one billion rupees. The producers have arrested him, convinced that he has cheated his way to victory. Twelve extraordinary events in street-kid Ram’s life – how he was found in a dustbin by a priest; came to have three names; fooled a professional hitman; even fell in love – give him the crucial answers. In his warm-hearted tale lies all the comedy, tragedy, joy and pathos of modern India.