The White Tiger: A Review

This book has won the Man Booker prize this year, as has no doubt been highly praised in the Main Stream Media as a result. Some of you might remember my aversion to popular books, as such, and especially those that have been recently awarded prestigious prizes. One would wonder then, as to why I would read this book. The answer is that I wanted to read this book, even before it was awarded the Man Booker Prize, and Arvind Adiga became the toast of the pseudo Intellectuals in the mainstream media. With that confession off my chest, let us get on to the book.

A superficial review would describe the story of the book, as the story of a man, who gets out of the village, becomes a driver, kills, and then goes on to have a successful life as an entrepreneur. It is written in the first person, via a series of letters to the Chinese premier (of all people).
But that would ignore the nuances of the story, or the skill of the story-telling. It would be glancing over the several themes that are touched in the book, or the characters that we meet, or their minds that we enter. It would fail to mention that this book is also an edge-of-the-seat thriller, with the reader, waiting for the next part of Balram’s life story to be brought to light, as the novel thunders to its inevitable end.

So what is the story, really about? It is about a lot of things. It is about the new India; One that appears to be shining through Glass buildings, fast cars, easy money and malls lit like Christmas lights, while at the same time, it is hollow within, and the tension between this superficial prosperity, and the utter poverty and helplessness of those that actually make and build this India, and make sure it works like clockwork. It is about those areas of darkness, which lie within the minds of people that are the fuel of this machine. They are there in our cities, but not living in them.

It is about Balram, the driver of a rich landowner, who has made quite a lot of wealth, of course, with several irregularities, and corruption. His son, a foreign returned Ashok, is in Delhi, paying off the Babus and the Netas, to make the Tax problems go away, as the family picks on a fight with the politician of that area. It is with this son that Balram serves.

The story deals with the Master-Servant relationship, in general, and is told from the perspective of Balram. We follow him, from his school days, as he has to drop out, to pay off loans, then migrate to the local town, and how he finally gets the Job. All along the way, we get lessons in ambition, and getting ahead in life.

This Balram, goes on to become an entrepreneur, in Bangalore. He tells us along the way of how he wants to get ahead in life, but how, he is caught in his instincts to be a good son, as well as a loyal servant. He calls these instincts, ‘the rooster coop’. He had dropped out of school, and become a ‘half-baked Indian’, but he never gave up on educating himself on the ways of life.
This is a story of how he learns about a new morality that would be required in his quest to the top. He has been once called a “white tiger” by a school inspector, who was surprised by adequate talents, in an inadequate village school. This tiger has to get out of his cage, learn the laws of the jungle, and rise to the top of the food chain, giving up on most of the things he once believed in.

This book is sort of a confessional, written as letters to the Chinese Premier. All men believe that they have a story to tell, and seek an audience for the same. We want to audience to believe us, so we often choose those that are like us, but at the same time are very different. It is easier if they were searching for what we have to offer, and this is why I believe, Balram, choose this particular recipient for his letters.

This book is a compelling, perceptive, sensitive and probing story of the New India, and I can’t recommend it enough.

This post is a part of the November madness programme that I am following, where I attempt to post one entry on this blog, everyday for the last 3 weeks of November.