Q & A

“In my mind’s eye I have often visualized that scene. A tall and graceful young woman, wearing a white sari, leaves the hospital after midnight with a baby in her arms. The wind is howling. Her long black hair blows across her face, obscuring her features. Leaves rustle near her feet. Dust scatters. Lightning flashes. She walks with heavy footsteps toward the church, clutching the baby to her bosom.”

This is one of Thomas’s many recurring dreams he has of his mother, whom he never met. His imagined vision of his mother often changes according to the circumstances of his life.

“Don’t you know, Father, how strong the movement is against conversion in these parts? Several churches have been set fire to by irate mobs who were led to believe that mass conversions of Christianity were taking place there.”

This quote is from Mr. Jagdish Sharma, who is speaking to Father Timothy about Thomas’s name. Sharma believes that Thomas should have an Indian name that is representative of the culture, which is how Thomas received both a Muslim and Hindu first name. This quote represents the religious tensions present throughout modern India. 

“As Mr. Barve told me once, the rich people, those who live in their marble and granite four-bedroom flats, they enjoy. The slum people, who live in squalid, tattered huts, they suffer. And we, who reside in the overcrowded chawls, we simply live.”

This represents the vast divide that exists between social classes in India. Thomas, being raised an orphan, has lived most of his life between the slums and the chawls, although he has witnessed the decadence of wealth while working as a servant to the wealthy. Of course, by the end of the novel, Thomas becomes a billionaire, but it’s clear that his time living in poverty has shaped his views.

“The walls of the room inside the chawl are very thin. If you put your ear against the common wall and concentrate hard, or even better, if you put an inverted glass against the wall and put your ear against it, you can listen to almost everything going on in the next room.”

Life in a chawl is extremely intimate. Living in such close quarters means that everyone knows everyone else’s business. While at times this isn’t ideal, this quote represents how this intimacy can have its benefits. In this moment, Thomas is eavesdropping on his new neighbors, the Shantarams, and this listening both allows Thomas tosave Gudiya from her abusive dad and correctly answer one of the quiz show questions.

“I feel fingers caress my arm, my elbows, my wrist, like a blind man feeling someone’s face. Then fingers interlock with mine, and I feel a magical transference of power, energy, love, call it what you will; the fact is that in that instant I become one with Gudiya and I feel her pain as if it is my own.”

There is a strong connection between Gudiya and Thomas’s mother, since he has never seen either woman’s face and yet feels a strong affinity to each of them. This quote demonstrates the power of those feelings for Thomas.

“But I know the daily stories of wife beating and abuse and incest and rape, which take place in chawls all over Mumbai. Yet no one does anything. We Indians have this sublime ability to see the pain and misery around us and yet remain unaffected by it. So, like a proper Mumbaikar, closer your eyes, close your ears, close your mouth, and you will be happy like me.”

This is spoken by Ramakrishna, Thomas’s landlord, after Thomas tries to tell him about Gudiya’s abuse. This quote is also indicative of the general feeling of helplessness that the lower classes feel in India. Knowing the police are controlled by the rich, Ramakrishna is saying that ultimately there is no justice for the poor, and getting involved can only get one in trouble, and bring emotional hardship.

“The most we could aspire to was to become one of those who held power over us.”

Here, Thomas is talking about what it’s like growing up in a juvenile home. Without any positive role models in their lives, the boys of the home can only aspire to what they see around them. This means that instead of having big dreams of going to college or traveling the world, many of the boys dream of becoming cooks or cleaners, professions they are familiar with and are somewhat easily attainable. This, in turn, perpetuates the cycle of poverty among the poor. 

“I often thought about Gudiya, too, and wondered what had happened to her, but it is difficult to sustain a memory if you don’t have a face to associate with the name.”

This passage furthers the connection between Thomas’s mother and Gudiya. He has never seen either woman’s face, and he is constantly trying to hold on to their memories by envisioning what they look like or where they are. 

“At times I actually start imagining myself as part of this Australian family. Ram Mohammad Taylor. But when one of the servants is scolded or dismissed or when Colonel Taylor wags a finger and says, ‘You bloody Indians,’ my dream world comes crashing down and I begin to think of myself as a mongrel peeping through a barred window into an exotic world that does not belong to me.”

This moment reveals how Thomas continually searches for an identity, while also speaking to India’s colonial past. Having grown up an orphan, Thomas continually seeks a sense of belonging that is dictated by the encounters with those around him. Here, living with the Taylor family, Thomas is their most beloved servant. Mrs. Thomas even takes him shopping and buys him treats. In this way, he feels a sense of security and home. Of course, as he admits, he knows this feeling is just an illusion. The way Colonel Taylor speaks derogatorily of Indians reminds Thomas of his place in the family, and echoes the racist underpinnings of colonialism in India. 

“I live in a corner of Mumbai called Dharavi, in a cramped hundred-square-foot shack that has no natural light or ventilation, with a corrugated metal sheet serving as the roof. It vibrates violently whenever a train passes overhead. There is no running water and no sanitation. This is all I can afford. But I am not alone in Dharavi. There are a million people like me, packed in two-hundred-hectare triangle of swampy urban wasteland, where we live like animals and die like insects.”

Here, Thomas is describing the reality of his life in Asia’s biggest slum. This description reiterates the dire circumstances facing India’s poorest residents. 

“Looking at the middle-class family scene in front of me, I don’t feel like an interloper anymore. I am no longer an outsider peeping into their exotic world but an insider who can relate to them as an equal, talk to them in their own language. Like them, I can now watch middle-class soaps, play Nintendo, and visit Kids Mart on weekends.”

This moment occurs while Thomas is riding on the train to Mumbai, when he has his 53,000-rupee salary from the Taylor’s in his underwear. He is sitting next to a wealthy family on the train, and instead of being their servant, he is, for the moment, their equal. This moment again demonstrates how divided the social classes are in India. 

“I held my breath and wished for that moment to last as long as it possibly could, because a waking dream is always more fleeting than a sleeping one.”

Here, Thomas is still riding on the train to Mumbai with the money in his underwear. The dreams he has for his life in Mumbai are tied to the money in his possession, but what is of importance here is the fact that for all of Thomas’s life, his dreams have always been fleeting and never actualized. Whether it is the visions he constantly has of his mother, his longing for a home, or even the money he earns, it all seems to slip from his fingers, just as this sum will. 

“First there are the advertisements. This war is sponsored by Mother India toothpaste and Jolly tea. Then we have a broadcast by the prime minister. Indian forces are winning the war, he tells us earnestly, and it is only a matter of days before the enemy surrenders completely.”

This passage details the conflict between India and Pakistan, and shows the ludicrousness of corporate involvement therein, in addition to the propagandistic overtones of the government broadcast. The character of Singh, in being a deserter and then taking his own life when discovered as such, functions as symbol for the seemingly-compulsory nationalism of India and Pakistan’s longstanding dispute: to literally or figurative desert such a conflict is to cease to exist. 

“They live in a fishbowl. First they hate it; then, as adulation grows, they start loving it. And when people no longer shower attention on them, they just shrivel up and die.”

This moment describes Thomas’s observations of Neelima Kumari, a once famous actress who has fallen out of the spotlight. While the transition to fame may be bumpy, Kumari, like many others, soon crave it, to the point where losing some of that fame—attained through the fantasy world of cinema—makes real life not worth living. 

“The film shows life too realistically. I think it is ridiculous to make such movies. What is the point of watching a film if you can see the real thing in your neighbor’s house just across the street?”

The difference between film and reality, between fiction and fact, is a common theme throughout the novel. For Thomas and Salim, their attraction to the movies is that it provides an escape from the harsh reality of their environment. Here, Neelima Kumari has just shown Thomas one of her realistic dramas, but Thomas is all too familiar with the grief represented in the film. This further demonstrates the divide between social classes. The upperclass watches drama because the unfamiliar content is entertaining, while the lower class lives that reality every day. 

“But as I nuzzled my face between her breasts, all consciousness of the outer world ceased in my brain and for the first time I felt as though I was not an orphan anymore. That I had a real mother, one whose face I could see, one whose flesh I could touch.”

This moment occurs after Thomas finds Neelima Kumari beaten and bruised at the hands of her boyfriend, and Kumari has pulled Thomas into her bare breasts. This incident symbolizes the intimacy of a mother breastfeeding her infant, and for Thomas it’s the first and only time he has glimpsed what it could be like to have a mother. This moment is also of significance because throughout the novel Thomas imagines his mother, yet he can never conjure her face. Here, the idea of a face he can see and a body he can feel is presented as the antithesis of the distant, ever-changing memory he holds of his mother. 

“Not surprisingly, my hunger just shrivels up and dies despite the mounds of tempting dishes lying on my table. I realize then that I have changed. And I wonder what it feels like to have no desires left because you have satisfied them all, smothered them with money even before they are born. Is an existence without any desire very desirable? And is the poverty of desire better than rank poverty itself?”

This moment occurs while Thomas is at an expensive restaurant with the rich college boys who take him out after touring the Taj Mahal. Although Thomas has seen wealth firsthand while working as a servant, this is the first time that Thomas has ever been treated to anything he wants. 

“And I realized again that real life is very different from reel life.”

Here, Thomas is commenting on how he always imagined that falling in love would be like love at first sight because that is what he had always seen in the movies. However, after falling in love with Nita, he realized that falling in love is a gradual process that takes a person by surprise. This moment is also a commentary on the difference between film and reality that runs throughout the novel. While the lines between film and reality blur for Thomas as a child, as he matures, these lines become more defined.

 “A new year has dawned, bringing with it new hope and new dreams. Nita and I have both turned eighteen—the legal age for marriage. For the first time, I begin to think about the future and believe I might even have one.”

For much of the novel, Thomas is frivolous with his money because he feels like his life, like others in the lower class, is day-by-day. Also, the only dream that he carries with him is that of his mother. However, after falling in love with Nita, he feels like he has a future. Yet, what’s important to note about this moment, is that Thomas’s dreams of his mother, these static visualizations rooted in the past, are replaced by a dynamic hope for what tomorrow will bring with Nita.

“I feel genuine hatred toward her that day. But perhaps she is right. Lajwanti made the cardinal mistake of trying to cross the dividing line that separates the existence of the rich from that of the poor. She made the fatal error of dreaming beyond her means. The bigger the dream, the bigger the disappointment. That is why I have small, manageable dreams.”

This moment occurs after Swapna Devi refuses to lend Lajwanti money for her sister’s wedding, which leads Lajwanti to steal the money from Swapna. Swapna Devi’s coldness towards Lajwanti’s plight has made Thomas, for the first time, feel hatred towards one of his employers. This moment is representative of how the lower class is often made to feel like second-class citizens at the hands of the rich throughout the novel. Quite often over the course of Thomas’s life, big dreams are only for the rich because the lower class can’t afford them. 

“I see Shankar smiling at me from above. And it seems that Goddess Durga is really looking out for me tonight.”

This moment occurs after Thomas answers the eleventh question correctly. Thomas has never portrayed himself as a religious person throughout the novel, and this is the first time he mentions believing in a god. However, Thomas has always been a superstitious character, often relying heavily on his lucky coin. Important to note is that Lajwanti always talked about Goddess Durga, and seeing as Shankar and Lajwanti are both from Thomas’s time at Swapna Devi’s chawl, this moment signifies that Thomas is fondly looking back to this time in his life and acknowledging that he is where he is because of the people that have been in his life.

 “I must admire the tactics of W3B. I am being feted before being sent off the show without a penny. Like a lamb, they are fattening me with adulation before slaughtering me on the next question.”

Here, Prem Kumar has secretly told Thomas that there is no way he will win the final prize, yet in front of the audience he cheers him on. This moment represents the theme of reality versus fantasy that is woven throughout the narrative. In reality, Prem Kumar is a crooked pawn of the producers, yet in front of the camera he appears to be on Thomas’s side. 

“In films they show you that killing a man is as easy as popping a balloon. Bam, bam, bam…people in films fire guns as though bullets are going out of circulation. They kill people like we squish ants. Even a novice here, who has never seen a gun in his life, is able to shoot and kill ten baddies in the villain’s den from five hundred feet away. But real life is different. It is easy to pick up a loaded gun and point it at someone’s face. But when you know that a real bullet will strike a real heart and that the scarlet liquid will be blood and not tomato ketchup, you are forced to think twice.”

This passage addresses Thomas’s thoughts as he considers murdering Prem Kumar in the bathroom of the quiz show set. It emphasizes the theme of reality versus fantasy that is common throughout the novel.