Thursday, December 4, 2008

The White Tiger

Reading something that is not very long and tediously written(tediously not tidy) that makes you think with a kind of fun behind, is what I consider "good"(again not best, I repeat). Similar was my experience with Mr Aravind Adiga's first novel "The White Tiger"( of Man Booker fame). Its a self-described narration to the Chinese Prime Minister, a glimpse beneath the surface of an Indian Entrepreneur, Balram Halwai alias Ashok Sarmah.

The book is about how from dirt of rural India which our author address as Darkness, "Munna" our hero becomes a successful business man, a "white tiger." In his journey from rags to riches, Munna takes a number of different profession, a school boy, the hotel boy, a driver cum household worker, even a murderer, entrepreneur and a white tiger.

He grew up in a small village near Gaya in Bihar, born to a poor rickshaw-puller, and named only "Munna," until his teacher named him "Balram" and gave him a birth date so that he could vote for the landlord.Then he becomes a tea table boy at the village tea stall, then a driver in Dhanbad and entered the light of Delhi via a job as driver to Mr Ashok, the son of a rich landlord. Here he chronically describes the Indian common man as to caged chicken at slaughter house and called it "the Rooster Coop."Being the honored servant and family waala, who never opposes his master and gharwaale's, naive enough to go to jail for Shahib. Our hero too did the same but his sarcastically cynical mind overcomes and prevents him from being a part of the Rooster Coop. Tired of a life of servitude, he takes a violent action goes ahead to murder his employer Mr Ashok, for the red bag of future, an also his name. The book is spiced up with miss-adventures of climbing the village old fort and dipping beak into blond haired and of course his granny Kusum bragging him all along the way for money. Above all its a good read, a good movie material; unpretentiously showcased, revolution and insurrection; outcome of a sardonic mind,an artistic representation evoking pity and compassion. The Chinese Prime minister would definitely like it and be more skeptical of coming to visit Agida's India.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

It feels great reading every blog u right....:)
U rock!!!

Anonymous said...

It's a good approach, to begin with, trying to explain the contents of the book. At times you sound more like a Critic. Well if you were really trying to do that It is a good effort. But if you were trying to do something else, say like sharing your experience whilereading the book, then I must say that " That lacks focus in this blog". But still a good effort, try to focus on what you are going to write also have a clear vision of what it is going to look like once the job is done.