The White Tiger** is the story & journey of a nameless boy. It is his journey from Laxmangarh hereto referred as “The Dark Side” to Dhanbad, Delhi and finally Bangalore.
Did I say nameless? Well he is called Munna which is an endearment and it means ‘boy’. It can’t surely be termed as a name???
As Munna himself tells his teacher who will later name him Balram, “that’s all I’ve got sir, my mom was sick and my father has no time to name me”. Balram had to drop out of school to earn money so that his cousin could be married respectfully. He works his way through a tea shop and dreams of being something more. His ambition makes him a driver and eventually moves to Delhi with his foreign returned ‘saab’ who in a way spoils him.
The book talks about how life is for the people living on the darker side. It’s about people who spend ages to make ends meet but still reach no where. Balram is their voice and the book is the view of emerging/ growing India from the point of view of people for whom the India is
still the same. They are still poor and crushed under the so called socio-economic
strata.
To break through this stratum you either have to be immensely
lucky & have a godfather or you have to find your own Godfather within you.
And it is the later that Balram does, he doesn’t runaway from the thought of murdering his
boss. But whether he does it or not, is to be read,
The book is
written in the form of a letter which Balram writes to an imaginary Chinese Prime
Minister. Why he writes this is beyond me but what he writes is
truth.
And that is the best part of the book. The way author has
written about the Dark side keeps you glued. We all know that this side
exists; people are below poverty line and would be ready to do anything for a
better life. But we chose to ignore it & believe that **India is
Shinning.
The book is extremely readable and in few &
simple words the author hits the right notes**. Sample these
excerpts
“I am India’s most faithful voter, and I still have not seen
the inside of a voting booth.”
One Simple line but says so much about our so called democratic voting
system
“He had one of those either/ or faces that all great Indian politicians
have. This face says that it is now at peace – and you can be at peace too if
you follow the owner of that face. But the same face can also say, with a little
twitch of its features, that it has known the opposite of peace: and it can make
this other fate yours too, if it so wishes.”
Though the subject
material could be termed heavy, I mean who would want to read more about corrupt
politicians, businessman, the nexus between them and poor people. I mean this is
like old story. But the book is good because of the way it is written. It keeps
you glued because
It is not preachy
It is well written
It is just a story not
a socio political
statement. Though the readers have full liberty to take it the way they want
to.
The book has it share of flaws as well. After a point Balram’s journey from
Delhi to Bangalore looks too easy and so does his growth as an entrepreneur. But
if you see in totality then the book is worth a read and
more.
*Does it deserve the Booker Prize???
*Am no judge of that but when I started reading the book
I forgot the fact that it has won the prize because I was able to read the book
unlike my previous experiences.
In fact last week I got hold of this
hindi newspaper
“Nav Bharat Times” with an
editorial by Shri.Khushwant Singh. He
felt that Adiga had
presented just one side of India and Delhi in particular. He felt that India is
not about darkness in fact we as a country have grown a lot and that should have
been written about. Now, this is a point which I have seen many a people
making.
I just wonder isn’t a novel all about story telling? If the author
chooses to write a story of a under privileged boy then we shouldn’t be expecting him
to talk about the growth. Come on the boy who can’t have a meal a day can not
say that India is shinning. They do build malls and condos but they still
share a tent behind
the construction site.
The bitter truth is that this dark side of India
does exist. The side where a common commuter can be lynched to death, a side
where trains are robbed off taps, knobs and even pipes, a side does exist where
hit and run cases happen even now.
This is a story and the author is not
here to make a socio
economic statement. He is here to tell a story and he does it well.
I just wish that people stop putting the book down just because it has won a Booker. To even suggest that India has been put down to target the readers abroad & to eventually win the booker is absurd as it can get. Are we suggesting that even a mediocre writer like me can win a booker this ways???
Only if we accept the fact that India is not all that shining as we imagine it to be and read the book as a book but not a political statement. Only if we don’t make a habit out of criticizing winners.