Q amp; A - Slumdog Millionaire电子版.pdf

Q A aka Slumdog Millionaire Vikas Swarup For myparents, Vinod andIndraSwarup and mylategrandfather, ShriJagadish Swarup PROLOGUE Ihavebeenarrested. Forwinningaquizshow. They came for me late last night,when eventhe stray dogs had gone off to sleep. They broke open my door, handcuffed me and marchedmeofftothewaitingjeep withaflashing redlight. There was no hueand cry.Notone residentstirredfrom his hut. Onlytheoldowlonthetamarindtree hootedat myarrest. ArrestsinDharaviareascommonaspickpocketsonthelocaltrain. Notadaygoes bywithoutsome haplessresidentbeingtakenaway to the police station. There are some who have to be physically dragged off bythe constables, screamingand kickingall the while. Andtherearethosewhogoquietly.Whoexpect,perhapsevenwait for,the police.Forthem,thearrivalofthejeep withtheflashing red lightisactuallya relief. In retrospect, perhaps I should have kicked and screamed. Protestedmy innocence, raiseda stink, galvanized the neighbours. Notthat it would have helped. Even if I had succeeded in waking someoftheresidents,theywouldnothaveraisedafingertodefend me.Withblearyeyestheywould havewatchedthespectacle,made some trite remark like There goes another one, yawned, and promptlygonebacktosleep.MydeparturefromAsias biggestslum would make no difference to their lives.There would bethe same 2 queueforwater inthe morning,the samedaily struggleto makeit totheseven-thirty localintime. They wouldnt even botherto find out the reasonfor my arrest. Come to think of it, when the two constables barged into my hut, even I didnt. When your whole existence is illegal,when you live on the brink of penury (poverty) in an urban wasteland where you jostle for every inch of space and have to queue even for a shit, arrest has a certain inevitability about it. Y