Aravind AdigaThe White Tiger: Booker Prize Winner 2008

Aravind Adiga’s The White Tiger offers a gripping, satirical look at modern India through the eyes of Balram Halwai, a man who rises from poverty to entrepreneurial success. Told in the form of letters to the Chinese Premier, Balram’s voice is sharp, darkly humorous, and unapologetically honest. The novel explores themes of class struggle, corruption, and ambition, painting a vivid picture of the stark contrasts within Indian society. A compelling read that challenges perceptions and leaves a lasting impression.

One of those stories where the protagonist is deeply problematic yet we don't stop rooting for him throughout. Best fiction i read this year (till now)❤️___I love a book thats full of wit and a bit of satire.The White Tiger shows the hard hitting Naked reality of India, of Delhi, of "us".The class divide of our society is described so beautifully with all the dark humour yet with such an ease that it becomes too real sometimes.This Journey of the protagonist - Balram Halwai from being a loyal servant/philosopher to Murderer of his own master to an entrepreneur (No, this is not a spoiler) is simply phenomenal.It changes your perspective about how you see things. And I am glad it did.💜

Aravind Adiga's The White Tiger attempts to reveal the "real India" which is almost always hidden behind the façade of the "Incredible India" campaign put into motion by our government. The protagonist Balram Halwai alias Munna writes of his own experiences to the Chinese prime minister, the fictional Mr. Jiabao. In a span of seven nights Balram narrates his journey from the oppressive life he used to lead in a village near Dhanbad to how he became a successful entrepreneur, owning a travel agency business in Bangalore.The descriptions afforded in the novel are life like, true and original. Some may argue that Adiga sometimes exaggerates a few points. However after careful reflection, it is felt that Adiga does actually portray the truth, which becomes so unbelievable to us that we take it for an exaggeration.The novel is replete with glowing passages. For example, this is how Balram describes the demise of his father. Observe how brilliantly Adiga criticises the pathetic medical system in the Indian villages:"I came to Dhanbad after my father's death. He had been ill for some time, but there is no hospital in Laxmangarh, although there are three different foundation stones for a hospital, laid by three different politicians before three different elections. When he began spitting blood that morning, Kishan and I took him by boat across the river. We kept washing his mouth with water from the river, but the water was so polluted that it made him spit more blood. There was a rickshaw-puller on the other side of the river who recognized my father; he took the three of us for free to the government hospital. There were three black goats sitting on the steps to the large, faded white building; the stench of goat faeces wafted out from the open door. The glass in most of the windows was broken; a cat was staring out at us from one cracked window."As can be seen from the passage above, Adiga shows how difficult life is for the poor, especially in the villages. He brilliantly satirizes the tendency of politicians to promise social improvement before the brink of elections. He also takes on the pathetic condition of the rivers of India, the waters of which we consider sacred, holy and pure, using it for religious ceremonies. Yet these waters are the most polluted.What comes across powerfully in the novel is a tone of anger, frustration and protest. The language in which Balram the protagonist narrates the story is important to serve this purpose. Some people criticize Adiga's writing style in this novel saying that it is undeserving of the Man Booker Prize that he won in 2008. I strongly beg to differ. Rather I would say that it is this style of his writing, this note of frustration and seething anger, that makes the novel all the more worthwhile to read and appreciate. It is a book that serves as a mouthpiece for exposing the sufferings of the poor and the oppressed. Various issues that we see everyday in newspapers are brought to the fore: politicians bribing ministers, murderers escaping from policemen who don't even lodge an FIR, servants mistreated by their so called masters, the urge for the poor man to become rich and successful through unfair means, patients dying in hospitals for lack of treatment and so on on. The novel is essentially a satire on the shams and the hypocrisies of Indians and the tendency of the rich to look down upon the poor.Adiga believes that there are "two Indias", one of the rich and the other of the poor. Like Charles Dickens whose novels served as a mirror to reflect the darker side of Victorian England amidst its progressive outlook and modern worldview, Aravind Adiga through The White Tiger does the exact thing to expose the "real" India. Many people from the West have this mistaken notion that the poor people of this country are spiritually richer, that they find joys in their daily struggles. Adiga lays this discussion to rest. Through the sufferings of the people of Laxmangarh, and of Balram's brother Kishan and his father, the author shows that the poor do not want to be poor, but lead a comfortable life. Some readers complain that Adiga purposefully exposes the poverty of India since the West loves reading about the filth in our country. "Slumdog Millionaire" did this and won the Oscar while Adiga also bags the Booker Prize writing about the same issues. However, there is one significant difference. Adiga is not glorifying poverty or ridiculing India in front of the West. He is basically trying to protest the unfair divide between the rich and the poor that exists in this country. The novel thus is an angry outburst. In India, a man is not known by the company that he keeps but by the vehicle that he drives, or more precisely through his material possessions. Let me provide another example. Here the police commissioner conspires with the murderer to hide his crime, while the victim's brother helplessly leaves the police station:"The number plates will be changed tomorrow," the assistant commissioner said. "We'll say it was a hit-and-run. Another car will be substituted. We keep battered cars for this purpose here. You're very lucky that your Qualis hit a man on a bicycle".The author then observes:" A man on a bicycle getting killed- the police don't even have to register the case. A man on a motorbike getting killed- they would have to register that. A man in a car getting killed- they would have thrown me in jail. "Such is the condition in India. And the saddest part is it is true. Everyone should read This White Tiger. That's the least they can do.

Every once in a while comes a book that challenges what passes for mainstream opinion. 'The White Tiger' is one such book which came around the time when India was hailed as a rising power with the holy grail of Superpower-dom just a few steps away. Adiga's novel throws cold water on the face of the people with such grand delusions and forces them to stare hard at reality. It definitely deserved the Booker prize as it presented the stark realities of modern India much to the displeasure of the 'shining India' crowd raised on fantasies of superpower-dom.It is written as a dramatic monologue which reminds one of the narrator from 'The Reluctant Fundamentalist' but only more angrier. The story takes us through the protagonist Balram Halwai's birth and upbringing in the 'darkness' of eastern India with its stark caste and religious conflicts where 'one cannot be a good man even if one wants to be' to the radiant 'light' of Bangalore bustling with call centers symbolizing new India. The contrast between this 'darkness' and 'light' is one of the central themes of the book and shows two disparate countries within one. The people from each of these Indias might as well been from different planets, such is the contrast.Balram typifies the plight of the rural poor as he grows up in an impoverished village wrought by landlords termed with imaginative names like 'Stork' and 'Buffalo' who cruelly fatten on the labors of the poor. He is sent to a dysfunctional school where the teacher collaborates to rip the students of the government funds . He is then rudely taken out of school to supplement the family income after they 'suffer' the marriage of a sister. He goes on to work as a 'human spider' working the tables in one of the ubiquitous tea shops and finally ends up in the local town where he learns to drive and lands a job as a driver.As a driver he experiences the unfairness of the master-servant relationship which seems to mirror the rich-poor relationship outside. The inherent injustice in the relationship is best brought out by an incident which culminates in Balram being asked to take responsibility for an accident caused by the madam of the house. Although the charge is never pressed, just the fact that the master - and shockingly he himself - had found it normal that a driver take the blame disillusions him. Balram starts to relate his own state with that of the poor outside and feels that both of them are like roosters trapped within a coop which condition them to bear the injustices without rebelling.The 'Rooster Coop' is the most abiding image from the novel. Adiga compares the disillusioned poor tempered by history to be inherently subservient to roosters in a coop. Like the roosters in the coop they do not rebel even in the face of impending doom as the 'coop is guarded from inside'. As Balram says himself, the coop is so sturdy that it would take an extraordinary 'freak of nature' - a white tiger like himself someone who is born 'once in a generation' to break out of this coop. Although one can argue with the means used by Balram to break out of the coop one has to sympathize with his helplessness and also that of the poor in general who have no means of breaking out of this coop. Balram sees his act in a larger context of breaking out of the coop and terms himself as 'neither man nor a demon' but simply someone who has 'woken up' in an unjust world and has decided to act rather than face his inevitable fate of dying a pitiful death like many of his ilk. In other words violence becomes an acceptable currency of transaction for the poor in an unjust world. Although one does not agree with his actions one does understand his motivations.Adiga's writing is flawless and the images he conjures stick in your mind for a long time. As Dickens and Flaubert exposed the cruelties bred by industrialization in 19th century England and France Adiga does the same exposé with the 21st century growing India. Adiga also doffs his hat in the direction of Ralph Ellison's 'Invisible Man' who he acknowledges as an inspiration. As Ellison brought out the issue of racism from the perspective of the black man Adiga endeavors to bring out the perspective of poverty and caste discrimination from the perspective of the Indian poor and succeeds marvelously.

Keeps you hook on, by the end of evert chapter there is content that makes you read next chapter as well.