FIRST IMPRESSIONS
WHEN Ram Mohammed Thomas wins a billion, his life does a double take. Not because he's won the sweepstakes but because the cops come to his hovel in the busiest slum in Asia, Dharavi in Mumbai, and handcuff him. Predictably, at the police station he is tortured. But just when things seem to be getting out of hand a young lady proclaiming herself as his lawyer rushes in and takes him home. Ram's story begins here. The lawyer switches on her tape recorder and tells Ram that she can save him. In return all she wants is the truth. The truth as to how he managed to answer all the 13 questions posed to him on the quiz show — Who Will Win a Billion? Bemused but trusting, Ram reveals how he managed to win the quiz show. His is no ordinary tale as his lawyer discovers. Ram is not a literary genius. Because he is nothing but an uneducated, orphaned waiter in Mumbai, the stakes are against him. Even as the promoters of the game show plot to oust him and not pay the promised money, Ram launches on the story of his life.
Rescued from a dustbin where he is dumped after his birth, Ram's life follows a singular path. One of survival in the face of odds. From the moment he is picked up by Father Timothy to the time he meets a crazy Australian mole, Ram's life is one of existing by instinct, which never fails him. Predictably as he tells his story against the backdrop of each question put to him on the show, there unfolds a saga of human greed, abuse, homosexuality, friendship and compassion. Q and A touches a chord somewhere even as it lets you believe in magic.
Q and A, Vikas Swarup, Doubleday, £10.99.
WHAT is it about mothers that in almost every language her name begins with the same syllable? Ma, mamma, mere, mutter, madre... The list is endless, even as there is a universal belief in the love of a mother. In her role in building children and homes. She who tirelessly dusts, polishes, cooks and cleans and then still has the patience to tuck you into bed and read you a story. Are mothers all sugar and candy? Or are they malicious, manipulative women who set about the task of running your life and controlling it from the day of your birth? This issue of Granta pays homage to mothers as against fathers. There is some stubborn streak of individuality that refuses to die out despite the child-bearing and child-rearing. This motley collection sometimes has a surprising view of parents.
To read Paul Theroux's account would be to banish immediately any thought of soft, loving and caring soul. His was tough as nails. But more than anything else, Theroux remembers her for her ability to play games, pitting one child against another.
Edmund White in "The Merry Widow" remembers his mother as an uncompromising careerist who never really understood her children or their desire to be more than average. White writes with feeling about his mother and his perception of her. In particular what strikes him as a child is his mother's girdle, referred to as the "Merry Widow". His view of his mother then is in relation to the girdle. What her skin is like, her insistence on wearing it everyday and the part that the Merry Widow played in shaping their lives — not just her body.
If all you've always been fed on is a diet of the sweet pious mother waiting eternally in the wings, some of the articles in this issue will shatter those myths. After all mothers can be murderers too.
Granta, £9.99.
IF she has taken her cue from The Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy, Patricia Scot Bernard has a long way to travel. Much more arduous than her journey in India. Like all white and single backpackers, Scot arrives in India with the idea of travelling without blending in. As she takes the reader through her travails in the country, we catch glimpses of romantic Rajasthan; brash Delhi and old-world Mount Abu. Everywhere there is a skirmish with uncomprehending locals whose knowledge of English or lack of it, leads Scot into titters. While she insists on travelling with a cherished copy of the Kamasutra, Scot, like other Westerners, falls into predictable traps. Her discovery of India remains shallow. This is one travel guide I know you won't miss if you give it a skip.
With the Kamasutra Under my Arm, Patricia Scot Bernard, Bluejay, Rs. 350.
SUCHITRA BEHAL
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