Background information of the story

–    The TV show.

  • What’ s the name of the TV show in which the story is based on? Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?
  • What do you know about it? Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? is a program that you try to guess the questions that you do. In this program, you play with three wildcards. If you solve all the questions, you earn money.
  • Post a short video of one of the programmes   <–(video at the link)

–    The main character

  • His name combines the names of three religions. Which are they? Ram Mohammad Thomas; Ram, is from the Hindu religion; Mohammad from the Muslim religion and Thomas from Christianity.
  • Where does he grow up? Include pictures. Ram is a young boy who was born in Delhi and grows up in the slums of Mumbai. Mumbai, which was once called Bombay,  is one of the biggest cities in the world.
  • A slum section is photographed from Bandra (East) train station, Mumbai, India. Here, famous child actors Azharuddin Ismail and Rubina Ali, playing the roles of ‘young Salim’ and ‘young Latika’ in the movie Slumdog Millionaire, winner of 8 Oscar Academy Awards in December 2008, still live with their families. Various promises were made to lift the two young actors from poverty and slum-life but as of the end of May 2009 anything is yet to happen. Rubina’s house was recently demolished with no notice as it lay on land owned by the Maharashtra train authorities and she is now permanently living with her uncle’s family in a home a stone-throw away in the same slum. Azharuddin’s home too was demolished in the past two weeks, as it happens every year in his case, because the concrete walls were preventing local authorities to clear a drain passing right behind it. As usual, his father is looking into restoring the walls as soon as the work on the drain has been completed.

–    People, places and events in the story.

  • Who was Surdas?Surdas lived in the fifteenth century, he was a saint, poet and musician, he was born in a small village in India. Surdas was a very religious man and wrote over one hundred thousand poems.
  • What is the connection between Surdas and the main character? Masterji teaches to Salim a song  of Surdas. One of the questions in the TV show is about one of the songs of Surdas, and Ram Knows the answer because the disabled children sang one of his songs.
  • What is the historical background? What war appears in the story? At the start of the twentieth century, India was a part of the British Empire. In 1947 two separate, independent countries were created India and Pakistan. There were violents wars in 1947, 1965 and 197. In story appears the war of 1971.
  • What is the story behind Taj Mahal? Include pictures. Emperor Shahjahan got married with Mumtaz Mahal, they had fourteen children. However Mumtaz Mahal died while giving birth to the last child in 1631. Before she died, her husband promised to build the most beautiful palace in the world for her. The result was the Taj Mahal.
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Include a picture of the Indian words and say in what context do they appear in the story.

RUPEE: the unit of money used in India, Pakistan and some other countries such as Nepal

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 CHAPATTI : a type of thin flat Indian bread.
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SARI:  a very long wide piece of cloth, especially silk, that women in India wrap around their bodies to make a type of long dress.
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CHAWL: a large building with a lot of small rooms for people to rent in India, particularly in Mumbai.
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TIFFIN: a small meal that you eat in the middle of the day or a small snack.
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