The White Tiger

I just read The White Tiger by debutant writer, Aravind Adiga (ya, ya, the same one that was all over the news for winning the Man-Booker prize winner). I liked it. The book is in a form which is the easiest to read-a letter form. Right from the beginning of the book, you know what the story is but how it unfolds page by page is fascinating.

There are some urgent issues dealt with such as the corrupt ways of dealings that exist among the elite classes and the obvious division between the haves and the have-nots. What makes it a good read is that it has been portrayed in a sardonic voice with ample wit.

With some brilliant facts, classic humour (sure to make you chuckle), simple yet effective language and a look at the world from the eyes of a driver, the book is a thorough entertainer.

The White Tiger is Balram who has grown up in the Darkness, which signifies the poor India where education is not given importance and the most urgent thing to do is to start working immediately. When you start working, you are supposed to give all your earnings to your elderly (who are always waiting for the month-end). Balram, is neither interested in working on mundane tasks nor is he interested in giving away his pay. He has dreams. All of us have. But what he has that perhaps, only a few of us have is a determination to achieve it. He has to drop out of school so he learns through experience. He eavesdrops on conversations, he is ever alert and inviting to every new piece of information he can get hold of.

He learns driving and goes to the city of New Delhi with his master whom he respects tremendously. He befriends the city, he listens to the roads, he develops a special bond with the profession. Fortunately, ambition takes the better of him. He kills his master. Yes! The one whom he respects tremendously and he very well justifies his act as that of a ‘social entrepreneur’.

The white tiger is a rare species. Balram is one, too. And just like the ferocious tiger, Balram too wants to break the bondages and escape from the cages the society has drawn for him and become something on his own, do something what HE wishes to do.

There are some things which I particularly liked about the character. The fact that he kills his master is not because he hated him (there is not a single sentence in the whole book where he bad-mouths him). In fact, the killing represents the killing of the system that his master represents (that of corruption and lies and falsehood). Also there is a nice relationship brought out between the driver and his car (yes, you read it right!). How the driver grows on every interaction with a new road and how gradually he becomes possessive of the car. His car.

Balram is a good guy. What is brought to light is that he becomes corrupt not because of his life in the Darkness, but because of his growth in the Light! I particularly liked it because generally all the crimes are accredited to poverty and lack of comforts. In this case, it was the prosperity and the way the rich live their lives that led Balram into becoming something that he wasn’t.

Education made him corrupt. Knowledge made him corrupt.