Vikram Chandra - Sacred Games

thokuA 'thoku' is someone who is thumped, hit; a lover who is a thoku is someone who is just banged, used for sex. It's a very belittling and vulgar thing to call someone.

tikkar-billaHopskotch.

topeLiterally, 'cannon'. Used sometimes as vulgar slang for the penis.

TRPAn abbreviation for 'Television Rating Points'. An industry system of evaluating the popularity of television programs.

Tu hi meri manzil A line from a song from the Hindi film Guide (1965): 'You are my aim, my only destination'. Guide was based on R. K. Narayan's novel The Guide .

Tu kahan ye bataa, is nasheeli raat mein …These lines are from the Hindi film Tere Ghar ke Samne ('In Front of your House', 1963): 'Tell me, where are you, in this intoxicating night?' See also He, chand taaron ne suna.

UPUttar Pradesh, a state in northern India.

usalColloquially, a collective term for the various pulses—moog, matki, masoor, waal, chavli and others—that can be used to make the typically Maharashtrian dish 'usal'.

uttapamA southern dish, similar to the dosa, that is made from rice and lentils.

vada-pauA 'vada' is a fried potato cutlet, more or less. 'Pau' is Portuguese for bread. So the cutlet is put between slices of bread or in a sliced bread roll, and you get something like a vegetarian hamburger.

Vahan kaun hai tera, musafir, jayega kahan? A line from the Hindi film Guide (1965): 'Traveller—who, there, is yours? Where will you go?'

VaheguruThe term for God in Sikhism. Vaheguru is eternal, formless, and beyond all qualities and descriptions.

Vallavh re nakhva ho, vallavh re Rama This is a line from a traditional Marathi song: 'Row, o boatman. Row, o Rama'.

vatanHome, country. This is a tremendously emotive word that encompasses all the passionate feelings one has for one's birthplace, for one's native earth.

vediyaCrazy guy, nutcase.

ye dil na hota bechaara Line from a song from the Hindi film Jewel Thief (1967). 'If this heart weren't so destitute…'

Yeh shaam mastani, madhosh kiye jaye This is a line from a song from the Hindi film Kati Patang ('Drifting Kite', 1970): 'This beautiful evening intoxicates me…'

VIKRAM CHANDRAwas born in New Delhi. His first novel, Red Earth and Pouring Rain (1995), won the Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Best First Book and the David Higham Prize for Fiction. His collection of short stories, Love and Longing in Bombay (1997), won the Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Best Book (Eurasia Region) and was a New York Times Notable Book. Vikram Chandra divides his time between Mumbai and Berkeley, where he teaches at the University of California. His work has been translated into eleven languages.

www.vikramchandra.com

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