Slumdog Millionaire

orig. roman-Slumdog:Layout 1

15-03-10

15:50

Side 1

9 788202 329303 www.cappelendamm.no

SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE

In this edition: • background articles • glossary • comprehension and discussion questions • writing and research ISBN 978-82-02-32930-3 tasks

Vikas Swarup

When a penniless waiter from Mumbai, Ram Mohammad Thomas, wins a cool one billion rupees in a game show, he is arrested on suspicion of cheating.

After all, how else could a kid from the slums have answered all twelve questions correctly? As he explains to his patient lawyer how his extraordinary life taught him the answers, he tells a story – by turns comic and heart-rending – that takes the reader through the contrasts of modern India: from orphanages to brothels, from gangsters to beggarmasters, and into the homes of Bollywood’s rich and famous.

The novel started out with the title Q&A, but the title was changed when a film based on it was released with the title Slumdog Millionaire. The film was a huge success and won eight Oscars and four Golden Globes. The novel and the film have much in common, but there are also significant differences.

Slumdog Millionaire Originally published as Q&A

Vikas Swarup Pedagogisk tilrettelegging ved Richard Burgess

First published in Great Britain in 2005 by Doubleday, a division of Transworld Publishers. This edition is published by arrangement with Transworld Publishers, a division of The Random House Group Ltd. All rights reserved.

Copyright © Vikas Swarup 2005 Vikas Swarup has asserted his right under the Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988 to be identified as the author of this work.

This book is a work of fiction and, except in the case of historical fact, any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

Norsk utgave © CAPPELEN DAMM AS, Oslo 2010 Materialet i denne publikasjonen er omfattet av åndsverklovens bestemmelser.

Uten særskilt avtale med CAPPELEN DAMM AS er enhver eksemplarfremstilling og tilgjengeliggjøring bare tillatt i den utstrekning det er hjemlet i lov eller tillatt gjennom avtale med Kopinor, interesseorgan for rettighetshavere til åndsverk.

Utnyttelse i strid med lov eller avtale kan medføre erstatningsansvar og inndragning, og kan straffes med bøter eller fengsel.

Omslagsdesign: Inger Sandved Anfinsen, Kobolt Design Kart: John Arne Eidsmo Nynorsk ved Nikolai Nelvik Forlagsredaktør: Birger Nicolaysen Sats: Type-it AS, Trondheim Trykk og innbinding: UAB PRINT-IT, Litauen 2010 Opplag 1 ISBN: 978-82-02-32930-3 www.cappelendamm.no

Contents Preface 5 About Vikas Swarup 6 An Introduction to India 7 Understanding the Novel 16 List of Important Characters 26

Slumdog Millionaire 27 Prologue 31 1,000 The Death of a Hero 41 2,000 The Burden of a Priest 64 5,000 A Brother’s Promise 82 10,000 A Thought for the Crippled 101 50,000 How to Speak Australian 130 100,000 Hold On To Your Buttons 156 200,000 Murder on the Western Express 173 500,000 A Soldier’s Tale 191 1,000,000 Licence to Kill 216 10,000,000 Tragedy Queen 235 100,000,000 X Gkrz Opknu (or A Love Story) 261 1,000,000,000 The Thirteenth Question 322 Epilogue 335 Glossary and Explanations 339 Comprehension and Discussion Questions 353 Writing and Discussion Questions to the Whole Novel Research Tasks 365

363

Preface Why read a novel? Of course, there are many answers to that question, but one of them is that reading a novel allows you to get inside someone else’s head, think someone else’s thoughts and, for the few hours it takes to read it through, live some else’s life. Then, when you put the book down and return to your own life, you realise that that too has been subtly changed and will never be quite the same again.

I think I can guarantee that the novel you are about to read will perform this magic trick on you. The life it invites you to live is very different from the one you live on a daily basis – that is, unless you have grown up in one of the biggest slums in Asia, been employed by a famous film star or won a million in a game show. Slumdog Millionaire tells the story of an extraordinary life in an extraordinary country. It is fiction, but as is so often the case with fiction, it allows us to grasp real life.

The novel started out with the title Q&A, but this was changed (with the blessings of the author) when a film based on it was released with the title Slumdog Millionaire. The film was a huge success and won eight Oscars and four Golden Globes. The novel and the film have much in common, but there are also significant differences. If you haven’t seen the film yet, we strongly advise you to wait until you have finished the novel. This will prevent you from getting confused and provide you with a chance to reflect on the differences between the two genres.

Enjoy your reading!

Richard Burgess 5

About Vikas Swarup If you were to guess who might write a book like Slumdog Millionaire, it is likely that you might imagine a penniless author with first-hand knowledge of life at the bottom of the heap, or a politically motivated spokesman for the downtrodden. You would be wrong. Before becoming a best-selling novelist with Slumdog Millionaire, Vikas Swarup had lived the comfortable and privileged life of a Indian diplomat, travelling the world – first-class – in the service of his country and rising to the rank of deputy High Commissioner. The novel was born, not in the squalor of Mumbai’s slum, but in the polite diplomatic circles of London where Swarup was working at the Indian High Commission.

The son of a wealthy lawyer family, Swarup claims that his lack of first-hand experience of poverty is no great drawback.

«The lives of the rich and the poor, the high and the low, intersect every day,» Swarup explains in an interview. «And if one observes, and learns, then one can also project.» The idea for the novel came from a news story he read about a case of cheating in a game show. Around the same time he had also been impressed by a story about how slum children had taught themselves how to use a free internet facility. From these two elements – the rigged game show and a self-educated boy from the slums – Slumdog Millionaire was born.

In spite of the success of the novel, Swarup has no plans of giving up his diplomatic career. «There's no better time to be an Indian diplomat,» he says. «India is the flavour of the season.»

6

An Introduction to India It is difficult for Europeans to grasp the sheer size and variety of India. With over a billion inhabitants, many more than the whole of Europe, it is the second most populous country in the world, and forecast to overtake China within a few decades.

Within its borders several hundred languages are spoken, 17 of which have more native speakers than, for example, Norwegian. The largest of them, Hindi, has more native speakers than English. Most of the world’s major religions are well represented in the country – Hinduism, Islam, Christianity, Sikhism, Buddhism and Jainism. And although the Hindus are the dominant group (approx. 80%), the number of Muslims is so large that India counts as the world’s third largest Muslim country.

History The diversity of the country is a result of a rich history in which different empires have sought for dominance. During the so-called Golden Age of the 3rd–6th centuries India was a world centre of all branches of learning, from philosophy to science. Later came influence from the Islamic world through the Mughal empire. It was during this period that the famous building the Taj Mahal was constructed, originally as a Mughal emperor’s memorial to his beloved wife. Today it is a UNESCO World Heritage site and, as we see in the novel Slumdog Millionaire, a major tourist attraction. In the 17th and 18th centuries European nations competed for trading dominance. Of these it was Britain who gained the upper 7

SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE

hand and by the middle 19th century India came under direct British rule.

Modern India was born in 1947 when British rule ended. Independence was preceded by violent conflict between Hindus and Muslims, which led to the partition of India and the setting up of a separate Muslim state, Pakistan, in the east and the west of the country. (East Pakistan later broke away and became present-day Bangladesh.) This conflict cost half a million lives and created a huge refugee problem as some 12 million Hindus, Sikhs and Muslims sought refuge on either side of the borders.

Srinagar JAMMU AND KASHMIR

AFGHANISTAN

CHINA

Amritsar

PAKISTAN

NEW DEHLI

IRAN

NEP AL

RAJASTHAN Jaisalmer

Agra

Jaipur

Udaipur

Varanasi

INDIA

Kandla

BHUTAN

Kanpur

Bhopal

BANGLADESH

Kolkata (formerly Calcutta) tta) ta))

Impal

BURMA (MYANMAR)

Nagpur

MAHARASHTRA

ARABIAN SEA

Mumbai (formerly Bombay) Hyderabad

Vishakhapatnam

B AY O F B E N G A L Panaji GOA Marmagao Bangalore

Chennai Pondicherry

Calicutt Cochin (Kochi)

Andeman Islands

Madurai

KERALA Trivandrum m Kovalam Colombo

8

SRI LANKA

N i co b a r Islands

Port Blair

The trauma of partition lives on in the tense relations between India and Pakistan, not least over the province of Kashmir, on which both countries make claims. These tensions have on four occasions erupted into open military conflict. One of these conflicts – in 1965 – is the background for a chapter in Slumdog Millionaire («A Soldier’s Tale»).

Since both countries are now nuclear powers, the prospect of military confrontation between them is viewed with increasing anxiety by the international community. More recently the issue of terrorism has threatened to sour relations between the countries, with India accusing Pakistan of involvement in attacks by Muslim extremists in Indian cities.

Ethnic conflict plays a role in the novel. Ram’s friend Salim, a Muslim by birth, lost his whole family when his home was burned down by Hindus, and Salim very nearly suffers the same fate himself in the chapter «Licence to Kill».

India – a country of paradoxes The Republic of India consists of 28 states, each with their own legislature and government. The federal capital is Delhi, which has population of about 12 million. The country’s largest city is Mumbai (which officially lost its colonial name Bombay in 1995), with a population of approximately 14 million. Both of these cities feature strongly in the novel.

Other large cities are Bangalore, Chennai, Kolkata (formerly Calcutta) and Hyderabad. Agra, which also features in the novel, is 19th in terms of size, with a population of 1.7 million. But in spite of the influx of people from the countryside to the cities over the last century, India remains a predominantly rural society with around 70% of the population living in villages and agriculture accounting for over half of the country’s work force.

9

SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE

Modern India is in many ways a country of paradoxes.

On the one hand, it is a country where 40% of the population live below the poverty line, where child labour is still a problem, though a decreasing one, and where unemployment is widespread. On the other hand, India is a technological superpower, with its own space research program and a leading role in the development of information technology. The Indian economy is growing rapidly and some experts predict that it will surpass the US economy before the middle of the century. Similarly, while India is plagued with the problems of corruption and inefficiency that are typical of an underdeveloped, post-colonial country, it is also a vibrant parliamentary democracy.

The old caste system lives on, particularly in rural areas.

This system, which is rooted in India’s early history, defines people according to hereditary social groups. Originally, Indian society was divided into a hierarchy of four main groups: Brahmins (i.e. priests and teachers), warriors, merchants/farmers and, at the bottom, servants and bonded peasants. Later a more complicated system developed dividing people into many castes (called jãti, meaning thus born) according to their trade and ethnicity. Surnames, which are often occupational, can therefore give an indication of caste.

India’s secular constitution made discrimination on the basis of caste illegal and guarantees the same rights to all. However, caste awareness lives on, as we can see in the novel when the aristocratic Swapna Devi meets Ram, who has assumed a false name:

10

Understanding the Novel What follows is not a ready-made analysis of the novel Slumdog Millionaire (originally published as Q&A) – far from it. It is intended to increase your understanding, and thus your enjoyment, of the novel as you read it by drawing your attention to connections and depths you might not have noticed otherwise. We hope you will find it useful both as an introduction to the novel and as a reference when you have read it. At the back of the book you will find comprehension and discussion questions, and we recommend that you use these to check that you are getting the most out of your reading.

Setting Setting refers to both where and when the action in a novel takes place. «Where» involves both the geographical location and the social environment we meet. The changing fortunes of Ram Mohammed Thomas take us backwards and forwards across the western part of India between the capital Delhi and the largest city, Mumbai, as well as to Agra, the site of India’s most famous tourist attraction, the Taj Mahal. We meet some of the extremes of Indian life from the worst slums to the privileged lives of film stars and foreign diplomats.

As far as the time period is concerned, we are given only indirect clues; no dates are mentioned. The quiz show itself places the action in the relatively recent past and we are told that Ram is 18 years old at the time of the show. The show on which the game show W3B seems to be modelled was first aired in 2000. That would mean that Ram was born at the 16

very earliest in 1982. However, in the chapter called «A Soldier’s Tale» we hear of an attack by the Pakistani air force on the town of Pathankot, while Ram and Salim are youngsters.

This took place in 1965, which would make Ram considerably older than 18 in 2000.

Anomalies like this serve to underline an important feature of the novel; although rooted in the realities of Indian life, it is a work of fiction and can therefore take liberties that a documentary book cannot. We do not need to see some of the more graphic aspects of Indian society depicted in the novel – the police brutality, the blinding of children to make them beggars, the corruption of the media – as social realism. «This isn't social critique,» Swarup himself said in an interview, «It's a novel written by someone who uses what he finds to tell a story.» «What he finds» is often taken from popular culture, in particular from Bollywood films. This Bollywood element contributes to making both the setting and the action «larger than life». Ram, the main character, talks about the difference between «reel» life and «real» life, and we might say that the novel takes place somewhere in between the two.

Point of view Point of view refers to the perspective that the story is told from. The opening sentence of the novel – «I have been arrested» – tells us that we are dealing with a first-person perspective. The author chooses this point of view for the whole novel, although this does not mean that other voices are not heard. Ram is clearly a born storyteller and allows the people he has met to express themselves through him, using long passages of direct speech. In the chapter «Licence to Kill» for example, he tells the story of Ahmed Khan through his 17

SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE

friend, Salim: «So this is the story narrated by Salim in his own words.»

Unusually, this story not only has a narrator, but what we might call a narratee – that is, a person it is narrated to. With the exception of the first part of the prologue and the whole epilogue, the story is told to Ram’s lawyer, Smita Shah. As you read the novel, you can judge for yourself how much her presence influences the way the story is told.

Plot The most unusual, indeed unique, aspect of the composition of Slumdog Millionaire is the way the plot is structured. Plot can be defined as the way events are organized in a narrative.

Events are the raw materials of plot, you might say, but it is the way a writer orders them, relates them to each other, and what emphasis he puts on them that determines how interesting and engaging a plot is. In traditional storytelling events are usually told in the order in which they happened – from «once upon a time» until «they all lived happily ever after». In modern fiction, however, it is quite common for writers to play with chronology as a way of creating suspense and dramatic irony.

In Slumdog Millionaire the plot is dictated by the order of the questions in a quiz show! Ram is miraculously able to answer each question he is asked on the programme because of some knowledge he has picked up in his dramatic life.

It appears quite natural, because, of course, that is the way memory is: we have our whole lives stored in our memories and particular recollections crop up at random when we are reminded of them.

But our own memories are one thing – at least we have all lived our lives in chronological order! – other people’s memo18

ries are something else. The challenge of Slumdog Millionaire is to grasp the life and development of the hero as he jumps backwards and forwards between the various periods of his life. Sometimes the author gives us guidance, by explicitly referring to events that have already been told or that will be told later in the book. Often we are left to work things out for ourselves. The following table may be useful as you read.

It gives the chapters in the order in which they are told, the quiz question that leads him to tell each story and, on the right, a number indicating where each chapter belongs in the chronology of Ram’s life:

CHAPTER

QUIZ QUESTION

Prologue The Death of a Hero

CHRONOLOGY 13

What is the name of the

5

Bollywood blockbuster in which Armaan Ali starred with Priya Kapoor for the first time?

The Burden of a Priest

What is the sequence of letters

1

often inscribed on a cross?

A Brother’s Promise

Which is the smallest planet in

6

the solar system?

A Thought for the Crippled

Surdas, the blind poet, was a

2

devotee of which god?

How to Speak Australian

What does persona non grata mean?

19

7

SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE

CHAPTER Hold on to Your Buttons

QUIZ QUESTION What is the capital of Papua

CHRONOLOGY 9

New Guinea?

Murder on the Western

Who invented the revolver?

8

What is the highest award for

3

Express A Soldier’s Tale

gallantry in the Indian Army?

Licence to Kill

How many test centuries has

11

India’s greatest batsman, Sachin Malvankar, scored?

Tragedy Queen

In which year did Neelima

4

Kumari win a National Award?

X Gkrz Opknu (or A Love

In which of Shakespeare’s

Story)

plays is there a character called

10

Costard?

The Thirteenth Question

What was the name of Mumtaz

12

Mahal’s father?

Epilogue

14

In some novels we find what is called a frame story. This is a story that frames – or surrounds – the other stories that are told. It is a typical feature of much older storytelling, like The Canterbury Tales or A Thousand and One Nights, in which a fictional person or group of people tell stories. Slumdog Millionaire belongs to this tradition, which is also found in older Indian literature. In this novel, though, we can say that there is a frame-within-a-frame. In the prologue Ram is saved from police brutality by the intervention of the young lawyer, Smita. It is to her that he tells the story of his life.

20

But the catalyst for each story – i.e. what sets his memories in motion – is Ram’s performance in the quiz show, which Smita has on DVD. Through the novel we shift between these three levels – the conversation with Smita, the quiz show, and Ram’s life story.

In novels that frequently return to a frame story, there is always a danger of losing tension and cohesion. When Swarup in addition chooses the random structure of the quiz show to order his plot, this danger is even greater. No amount of flashbacks and flashforwards – and the novel is full of them – can prevent a novel like this from seeming episodic, even chaotic. So how is it that, in spite of this, Swarup manages to keep our attention and keep us wondering how it will end?

Well, for one thing, the structure of a quiz show has tension in itself – that is why they are so popular. Will he manage the next question? Will he make it right to the top? Another factor holding the novel together is that certain characters and objects crop up several times in the narrative, our understanding of them increasing as the narrative progresses. An example here is Ram’s lucky coin, the true nature of which we do not discover until the end. Keep an eye out for other such objects and characters as you read!

Themes Another important element that gives the novel cohesion is that there are clear thematic connections between the stories that are told. By the theme of story we mean what a story says, directly or indirectly, about the world outside the work itself. It seldom means a «message» – most writers do not write to «teach us things» – but rather the ideas, dilemmas or conflicts that a story is preoccupied with. Vikas Swarup has made it very clear that his first priority was to entertain: 21

SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE

«I’m not one of those writers who wants to spend four pages describing a sunrise. There are so many of them in India. I’m a sucker for thrillers and I wanted to write one.»

Nevertheless, the life story of Ram Mohammed Thomas is very much the story of an underdog, and his dealings with police brutality, corruption and crime undoubtedly give an impression of Indian society that is far from flattering. However, the happy ending of the story implies that the underdog can win in the end and that India, in spite of all its faults, is a country of opportunity.

The themes of a novel are usually closely related to the conflicts it focuses on. As you read the novel, look for parallels between the conflicts in each chapter. In «A Soldier’s Tale», for example, we meet a person who is essentially living a lie.

Can you find any other instances of this in the novel?

Character Fictional characters are created in two ways: Either the narrator tells us directly what sort of person we are dealing with («he was an unpleasant and unreliable man …») or we are left to draw our own conclusions based on the way a person behaves or is spoken about by others. We can call these two methods direct and indirect characterisation, and we often find that writers mix both methods. This is how Ram, the narrator of Slumdog Millionaire, presents police inspector Godbole: Godbole is not very old, perhaps in his mid forties. He has a balding head and a round face dominated by a handlebar moustache. He walks with heavy steps and his overfed stomach droops over his khaki trousers. «Bloody flies,» he swears and tries to swat one circling in front of his face.

He misses.

22

In four sentences we get a clear portrait of the man. Whatever we may think to the contrary, we judge people by their appearances and the features mentioned here all suggest a person who is apathetic and unhealthy. In addition to this direct characterisation we have the detail of the fly swatting, suggesting that he is ineffective and irritable too.

We often use the terms flat and round when talking about character. A flat character is simple and one-dimensional.

Their behaviour is predictable and they can often be summed up in a stereotype, like «the kind grandfather» or «the honest soldier». Round characters are more complex, full of contradictions and paradoxes – as real people generally are. Often there is a judgemental element to the terms – as if round characters are better than flat ones. But it does not have to be so. Some of the greatest novels are full of flat characters – Charles Dickens’ novels are a good example – and many of Shakespeare’s most memorable characters are flat (although his main characters are generally round).

In Slumdog Millionaire we meet a rich gallery of characters.

How are they characterised: directly or indirectly? Which are flat and which are round? Do the flat ones fill any particular stereotypes? Is there any connection between how they are characterised and whether they are flat or round? What about the main character; is he complex and contradictory or straightforward and predictable? Think about these questions as you read the story.

Style and irony Ram’s style is in the best tradition of oral storytelling. He brings his scenes to life with direct speech and visual details, moving from the past to the present tense to give them immediacy. It is no coincidence that the novel has become a 23

SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE

successful movie – there is something rather like a film about the novel itself.

At the same time it is important to remember when reading Slumdog Millionaire that, while it is told by a young, penniless waiter with no formal education, it written by a civil servant with a university degree. In other words, the style of the writing is chosen to fit a particular persona. Behind the fresh, rather naïve voice of Ram the orphan there is an author who is both older and wiser. This gives the narrative an element of irony, as the author invites us to laugh at Ram. An example is this passage from «Licence to Kill», where Salim is telling him of his dramatic escape from the evil Maman: ‘I just turned around and ran towards the main road.

A bus was pulling away and I jumped on it just in time, leaving Maman panting behind me on the road.

‘I was sitting on the bus, thinking what a lucky escape I’d had, when guess what happened?’

‘What?’

‘The bus stopped at a traffic light and a group of ruffians wearing head bands and armed with swords, spears and tridents got on.’

‘Oh, my God! Don’t tell me it was a mob.’

‘Yes, it was …’

The dialogue seems childish and slightly ridiculous, and is meant to be so. It serves to emphasise Ram’s (and Salim’s) innocence and enthusiasm, and gives an added ironic dimension to the narrative.

We find the same childlike innocence in Ram’s account of his own dramatic experiences. Coupled with the atmosphere of «reel» rather than «real» life that we mentioned earlier, this gives his account of terrible events like torture, rape and 24

Comprehension and Discussion Questions Prologue Comprehension 1) Ram opens the novel by saying he has been arrested for winning a game show. Explain in your own words the background for his arrest.

2) Why do the television people find it impossible to believe that Ram has won fairly?

3) Billy Nanda is against using torture. Why? 4) What do they hope to achieve by torturing Ram? 5) How is Ram rescued from torture?

6) The DVD of the game show is the instrument by which Smita learns of Ram’s life story. Explain!

Discussion 1) How do you react to the physical violence in this chapter? Do you find it realistic?

2) Vikas Swarup says he has received no complaints from the Mumbai police about his depiction of their methods. Does this surprise you? How do you explain their lack of reaction?

1,000

The Death of a Hero

Comprehension 1) Roughly how old do you think Ram and Salim are in this chapter?

2) Where are Ram and Salim living?

3) «Salim loves Armaan [Ali]. Or, more correctly, he worships Armaan.» Find examples to illustrate this.

4) What gift does Salim send to Armaan Ali, and why?

5) Salim wants to burn down the offices of the magazine Starburst.

Why? 353

SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE

6) Who does the bearded man in the cinema turn out to be?

7) Why is the chapter called «The Death of a Hero»?

8) What seem to be the main ingredients in the film Salim and Ram are watching?

9) How do the rules of the game show compare with other game shows you have seen?

Discussion 1) What would you say is the main theme of this chapter?

2) Have you ever seen a Bollywood movie? If so, what did you think of it?

3) Why do you think the world of film is so attractive to people like Salim?

4) «Those who buy magazines about celebrities are basically very sad people without a life of their own.» Do you agree or disagree with this statement?

2,000 The Burden of a Priest Comprehension 1) How did Ram first arrive at the orphanage?

2) How did he come to be in Father Timothy’s care?

3) Ram tells of when he understood «the difference between father and Father». What does he mean by this?

4) What is odd about Ram’s full name, and how did he get it?

5) What early signs are there that Father John is not like Ram expects a priest ought to be?

6) Ram and the young backpacker Ian are both «orphaned» by Father Timothy’s death. Explain.

7) Where does Ram end up after the events of the chapter?

8) How is Ram able to answer the game show question?

9) What do you think is the significance of the title of the chapter?

354

Discussion 1) How is the theme of parenthood presented in the chapter?

2) Homosexuality figures in the novel on several occasions. How is it treated here?

3) Celibacy is obligatory among Catholic priests. Why do you think this is, and is it a good idea in your opinion?

5,000

A Brother’s Promise

Comprehension 1) Why is Salim so upset at the beginning of the chapter?

2) What is life like in the chawl?

3) Why have Mr Shantaram and his family come to live in the chawl?

4) What jobs are Ram and Salim employed in?

5) How does Ram become involved in the domestic problems of the Shantaram family?

6) How does Mr Ramakrishna, the chawl administrator, react when Ram tells him of Mr Shantaram’s violent behaviour?

7) Why does Ram leave Mumbai?

8) What signs are there that the game show is not entirely fair?

9) How does Mr Shantaram indirectly help Ram to answer the game show question?

Discussion 1) Mr Ramakrishna talks about how Indians have «a sublime ability to see the pain and misery around (them), and yet remain unaffected by it.» Do Norwegians have this ability too? Is it human nature?

2) Would most people intervene if they knew that a neighbour was being subjected to domestic abuse? Explain why/why not.

10,000 A Thought for the Crippled Comprehension 1) What are living conditions like in the Delhi Juvenile Home for Boys?

355