Arundhati Roy - Mother Mary Comes to Me

I sold a ring, the only piece of jewellery I owned to a man at a fruit juice stall. He gave me a few hundred rupees and a banana shake. Enough for my passage to Delhi. 

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I think I had a cool seraphy watching over me. Especially each time I was at a crossroads and had to make a decision. My education, the class I came from, and, above all, the fact that I spoke English protected me and gave me options that millions of others did not have. 

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It was not any great strength of character or steely artistic ambition that saved me from prison or serious harm. It was just happenstance, and a series of small impulsive decisions, taken on the fly.