As 'The White Tiger' by Arvind Adiga won the booker prize, I wanted to see what the fuss was all about. And so I decided to read it myself. What did I make of it?
The format was an interesting one. The main character, Balram a.k.a Munna a.k.a the White tiger (refered to by a school inspector), decides to write a series of letters to the prime minister of China in order to tell him the truth about Bangalore and more so about India as a whole. An innocent child who had a bright future according to the school inspector is taken out of school in order to help his family ease their debts. From there on begins a journey for Balram where he learns a lot of things, good and bad from the situation he finds himself in at various stages of his life. Born in 'the darkness' as he puts it Balram travels to the capital Delhi before finally landing in the call centre capital of India, Bangalore. The letters gradually shift towards the more recent past and then we find Balram reveal his present status.
This novel a first for Adiga, is refreshingly honest about the part of India we rarely hear about, especially in the Western World. There are many more people like Balram in India who we rarely hear about and worked tirelessly under a system that can often be corrupted. The democracy is 60 odd years old now, so is still finding its way but the novel reveals much of what happens in parts of India.
Adiga tries to do a contrast with many things, the rich vs the poor, the north vs the south, capitalism vs communism, India vs China, master vs servant, men vs women and so forth and for these reasons alone it is a book that must be read in order to get a broader perspective of life in arguably the biggest democracy in the world.
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