Recent years have seen emergence of many young authors but the name of Aravind Aravind Adiga is quite distinguishable. Aravind Adiga’s name shot into fame as his book ‘The White Tiger’ was adjudged as the winner of prestigious ‘Man booker prize’. The book is a meticulous depiction of the ever-widening rich and poor rift which has been time and again highlighted but never got the attention it deserves. The book blatantly demystifies the true face of today’s resurgent India. Aravind Adiga has researched assiduously in constructing a story that leaves some grave questions in the reader’s mind.
This is a debut novel of Aravind Adiga who is a freelance journalist. Born in Madras he grew up in Mangalore before his parents immigrated to Sydney, Australia. After completing his studies at Magdalen College in Oxford he began his journalistic career as a financial journalist, interning at the Financial Times. Later he was hired by TIME, where he remained a South Asia correspondent for three years before going freelance. This was during his freelance period that he wrote ‘The White Tiger’.
The White Tiger is a rag to riches story of a normal Indian who nicknames himself the White Tiger and has become a successful entrepreneur. He has made his own destiny in a country whose economic growth has been outstanding due to technological upswing in recent years. But this rag to riches story is not unlike other ones in which protagonist works hard relentlessly day and night to achieve his goals, but is the one in which he taken the shortest path of crime and corruption. Protagonist is the narrator itself and the book is in fact a letter written to the Chinese Premier explaining him about ‘entrepreneurs’ of who are absent in China. He sits in his 150 sq feet office and shamelessly elucidates how he has murdered his previous master whom he also considers his mentor. This might seem hideous on a protagonist’s part but as the story unfolds the picture becomes more and more clear.
The White Tiger was born in some utterly impoverished Indian rural area where development and democracy are still part of oblivion. The world where he is born is not the India illuminated with the bright lamps of development and democracy but lies deep in the dark dungeons of corruption, inequality and poverty. His brief time at local school earns him his nick name ‘The White Tiger’ and real name’ Balram Hawai’ before he is pulled out of school into child labour so that he can help his family make both ends meet. His India is devoid of any fundamental right, with no medical facilities, and it’s a place where elections are openly rigged and brutal atrocities of landlords are dominant. Throughout the narrative he calls his village as a world of darkness and he becomes more and more determined to escape out of the dark as he helplessly watches his father die of tuberculosis in his arms. His desire to learn makes him to eavesdrop and gradually he manages to become a driver, and incidentally he finds work in the home of his vicious land lord. Luck, lands him out of the darkness into illuminated city of Delhi.
Thats not just logic. Thats really ssenlibe.
That saves me. Thanks for being so snieslbe!
In that case Nallasivan Sir, even Slumdog Millionaire showed only one aspect of India in a somewhat romanticized manner. Even my cousins abroad who are seconds generation citizens got the wrong message from the movie. I can only imagine what a complete foreigner would have made of it. And taking of depicting reality, SM indeed was a fine effort to bring out the message of hope but at the same time, Mr.Adiga’s protagonist does find a face in many Indians. Slumdog Millionaire depicted one face of India but we hailed it and justified it on the grounds of creative freedom a film-maker should be entitled to, more so after the Oscar haul. Is Mr.Adiga not entitled to the same? Why should he take it upon himself to be the spokesperson of all Indians? And as far as depicting a wrong image of a country is concerned, that is something which is universal. The exodus of foreign television dramas flooding our T.V sets are lapped up with joy by people here, without realizing that they too do not depict the true picture of a Western society either. It’s high time we de-linked a writer’s idea of a theme with the “ideal” image we’d all like to purport.
India is a country of many shades, can’t be depicted in a single painting
You are right. one novel and one perspective cannot be seen as representative of a whole nation. But when an outsider reads this novel, he is bound to take it blindy as the truth. what impression will he get about India? That was my point. When we gives our perspective, it is absolutely important that we strive to give a 360 degree view, we strive to show the readers two sides of the coin. I m not sure if Adiga has done that.
@Nallasivan V… Sir, one lone novel and its protagonist cannot be taken to speak for everyone from a particular strata. It just tells the story of one person. Novels, no matter how close to reality, speak in perspective of one person. Going by the logic you provide, how many ppl in poverty sticken parts of India have the luck and fate of the protagonist in Slumdog Millionaire? Do you call that the true depiction of India? It was the story of one (among millions) person’s triumph against odds. A novel is known for it’s novelty. Blunt reality depicting the life of millions of poor have made it to crores of books. Can you name one sir, which might have caught your attention and the attention of the world? It is like the difference between a photograph and a painting. The former is closer to reality. The latter is pure novelty with a deeper meaning. Adiga used brilliant imagination and no offence, there do exist ppl like his protagonist in the world. With his book, he has brilliantly merged the face of poverty and it’s trials with the drama element pivotal to a novel. Definitely deserved the Booker!
Agreed that Adiga is a great storyteller, but can whatever he depicts as India can be really taken as true depiction of India? Are All Poor people like his protagonist Balram, hungry for money and totally devoid of any traces of Love for his kin? Or are all poor families totally love-less as he has depicted? The Media criticized Slumdog millionaire for depicting India in a wrong way. But IMHO Slumdog millionaire was better than the white tiger, the movie was filled with notions of love and hope all through out. I would say the Booker prize judges have made an ignorant mistake. Amitav Ghosh’s sea of poppies deserved this booker Award.
Adiga has the remarkable quality of merging pragmatism with drama, without the cliched humdrum associated with stories which depict reality.