Sancho
02-26-2009, 11:15 AM
There has always been a fascination with India in the Western mind. The Subcontinent is mysterious to us, somehow more spiritual to us, a place we can go to find ourselves, a place we can become one with the universe. Even my ‘Lonely Planet’ guide book ensured me that once I’d traveled to India I would be changed forever.
But, of course, that’s all horsesh*t. It’s a myth, foisted on us mostly by other over-fed, dreamy-eyed, self-absorbed Westerners. It is also one of the ideas Aravind Adiga gets at fairly well in his novel, The White Tiger.
But that’s not what the novel’s about; it just happens to be one of its hilarious side currents. The White Tiger is a story told pragmatically by Balram Halwai, an Indian from the darkness. He tells his story over the course of a week by way of nightly e-mails to the Chinese Premier who is planning a visit to India in the near future to learn of Indian entrepreneurialism. Here’s Balram in his first e-mail:
“Apparently, sir, you Chinese are far ahead of us in every respect, except that you don’t have entrepreneurs. And our nation, though it has no drinking water, electricity, sewage system, public transportation, sense of hygiene, disciple, courtesy, or punctuality, does have entrepreneurs. Thousands and thousands of them. Especially in the field of technology. And these entrepreneurs – we entrepreneurs-have set up all these outsourcing companies that virtually run America now.”
So, Balram is a successful Bangalore businessman as he is telling his story to the Premier. And the story is about his journey from peasant son of a rickshaw-puller in the town of Laxmangarh to coal-breaker in a local tea shop to 'lifelong' driver/servant to a rich man in New Delhi to private businessman in Bangalore.
One of Gandhi’s projects was to rid India of the caste system but it has proved resilient in the minds of the people, making vertical mobility difficult there. Balram’s last name is Halwai which means ‘sweet maker’ in Hindi and thus, his caste. So why then was he born the son of a rickshaw-puller? He explains that there are no longer a myriad of castes in Indian society such as sweet-maker, cowherd, goldsmith, landlord, or feces-sweeper; now there are only two castes: fat-bellies and skinny-bellies. In fact, the book is loaded with comparisons – fat vs. skinny, rich vs. poor, darkness vs. light, upward vs. downward mobility, east vs. west, servant vs. master, Hindu vs. Muslim – it goes on and on.
I suppose the other inevitable comparison is between The White Tiger and Slumdog Millionaire. There certainly are similarities between the novel and the movie but the literary models are fundamentally different. Slumdog, it seems to me, is a quest movie, complete with a maiden in distress, a knight in shining armor, a number of fire-breathing dragons, and a holy grail. The White Tiger, on the other hand, is a Faustian novel. To become a successful entrepreneur, Balram must make a deal with the devil – he murders his master. I know, I know, you-all are crying ‘foul’ right now, but believe me: that wasn’t a spoiler. Balram admits to us (or rather to the Chinese Premier) that piece of information in his first e-mail.
At any rate, I thought The White Tiger was a very enjoyable book. Balram is a well developed and interesting character. He is even somewhat endearing – for a murderer – and his story is infectious. The book is contemporary and valid in a global-market sense and Aravind Adiga is a trustworthy source on these matters. He was formerly a financial correspondent for Time magazine. He is an Indian national but was educated in the west and has lived in many places around the world; he now resides in Mumbai (Bombay). His unique life experience makes Adiga uniquely qualified to write this book.
Anyhow, give it a read. I’ll bet you’ll like it. It’ll make you laugh and you might even learn a thing or two about the mass of humanity living in the darkness, oh yes and also some beautiful Muslim poetry. So there you go and as with my other book reviews for the Lit-Net, I’m going to chop this one off abruptly right here – the plane’s about to land so I have to power-down the laptop. By the way, this time it wasn’t a nice, comfy wide-body on transcontinental flight but rather a freakin’ RJ into Oklahoma City! But hey, the Stews tend to be a lot younger and a lot less jaded on these little jets.
But, of course, that’s all horsesh*t. It’s a myth, foisted on us mostly by other over-fed, dreamy-eyed, self-absorbed Westerners. It is also one of the ideas Aravind Adiga gets at fairly well in his novel, The White Tiger.
But that’s not what the novel’s about; it just happens to be one of its hilarious side currents. The White Tiger is a story told pragmatically by Balram Halwai, an Indian from the darkness. He tells his story over the course of a week by way of nightly e-mails to the Chinese Premier who is planning a visit to India in the near future to learn of Indian entrepreneurialism. Here’s Balram in his first e-mail:
“Apparently, sir, you Chinese are far ahead of us in every respect, except that you don’t have entrepreneurs. And our nation, though it has no drinking water, electricity, sewage system, public transportation, sense of hygiene, disciple, courtesy, or punctuality, does have entrepreneurs. Thousands and thousands of them. Especially in the field of technology. And these entrepreneurs – we entrepreneurs-have set up all these outsourcing companies that virtually run America now.”
So, Balram is a successful Bangalore businessman as he is telling his story to the Premier. And the story is about his journey from peasant son of a rickshaw-puller in the town of Laxmangarh to coal-breaker in a local tea shop to 'lifelong' driver/servant to a rich man in New Delhi to private businessman in Bangalore.
One of Gandhi’s projects was to rid India of the caste system but it has proved resilient in the minds of the people, making vertical mobility difficult there. Balram’s last name is Halwai which means ‘sweet maker’ in Hindi and thus, his caste. So why then was he born the son of a rickshaw-puller? He explains that there are no longer a myriad of castes in Indian society such as sweet-maker, cowherd, goldsmith, landlord, or feces-sweeper; now there are only two castes: fat-bellies and skinny-bellies. In fact, the book is loaded with comparisons – fat vs. skinny, rich vs. poor, darkness vs. light, upward vs. downward mobility, east vs. west, servant vs. master, Hindu vs. Muslim – it goes on and on.
I suppose the other inevitable comparison is between The White Tiger and Slumdog Millionaire. There certainly are similarities between the novel and the movie but the literary models are fundamentally different. Slumdog, it seems to me, is a quest movie, complete with a maiden in distress, a knight in shining armor, a number of fire-breathing dragons, and a holy grail. The White Tiger, on the other hand, is a Faustian novel. To become a successful entrepreneur, Balram must make a deal with the devil – he murders his master. I know, I know, you-all are crying ‘foul’ right now, but believe me: that wasn’t a spoiler. Balram admits to us (or rather to the Chinese Premier) that piece of information in his first e-mail.
At any rate, I thought The White Tiger was a very enjoyable book. Balram is a well developed and interesting character. He is even somewhat endearing – for a murderer – and his story is infectious. The book is contemporary and valid in a global-market sense and Aravind Adiga is a trustworthy source on these matters. He was formerly a financial correspondent for Time magazine. He is an Indian national but was educated in the west and has lived in many places around the world; he now resides in Mumbai (Bombay). His unique life experience makes Adiga uniquely qualified to write this book.
Anyhow, give it a read. I’ll bet you’ll like it. It’ll make you laugh and you might even learn a thing or two about the mass of humanity living in the darkness, oh yes and also some beautiful Muslim poetry. So there you go and as with my other book reviews for the Lit-Net, I’m going to chop this one off abruptly right here – the plane’s about to land so I have to power-down the laptop. By the way, this time it wasn’t a nice, comfy wide-body on transcontinental flight but rather a freakin’ RJ into Oklahoma City! But hey, the Stews tend to be a lot younger and a lot less jaded on these little jets.