The White Tiger: Booker Prize Winner 2008 Paperback – 3 November 2009

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.

I'm a young college student, and with all your peers going on endlessly about the latest movies and TV shows, it's hard to put your mind to reading a book. So after a gap of nearly an entire semester, wrapped in the comfort of my blanket, I've resumed reading. And what a book for a restart!By far, Adiga's concept is nothing new. The story of a young boy from a downtrodden family in the poorest of villages rising through the ranks to finish at the top of the society, ignoring the means of this achievement, is something that has been explored before. Take for example, Chetan Bhagat's book, Revolution 2020, or maybe even Academy Award-winning movie Slumdog Millionaire (I reckon the latter's further apart), and you see that the lines running through the stories are parallel. Nevertheless, a prominent difference lies in the manner of story-telling. And this is what caught my eye right at the beginning.The picture of India that we see advertised on TV, websites and any other form of media accessible to you and me is a beautiful one. The question then that must be asked is, "Is it the real one?" Adiga lands a real sucker-punch in bringing you to the harsh realities of life in the lands of the country he calls 'The Darkness' and 'The Light'. With a no-nonsense approach, he thrusts you into life in the lands. Sarcasm is strewn through the pages as the narrator tackles menace after menace of 'modern' society.Though the book has no evident plot twist, it takes hold of you from the first page and doesn't let you go till you're done. The storyline is fast-paced and keeps moving ahead, only pausing at times of emotional thought-processing on the narrator's part. Truth be told, I began reading it barely 8 hours ago, and with a modest couple of breaks in between, here I am, completing this review.If you're looking for a quick read that will bring you right back to Earth when you've got your head in the clouds, this is it.