SANDRA BABU ~ 5066

                        "WHITE TIGER "- A Reflection ....

Aravind Adiga

              The 'White Tiger” written by the Indian-Australian author Aravind Adiga, is a debut novel published in 2008. It won the 40^th Man Booker Prize that year itself.

                             The White Tiger is presented as a epistolary novel,a series of seven letters written over a period of seven nights. It's just an excuse,of course, for the narrator Balram Hawai to tell his story. Balram is writing to the premier of China, Wen Jiabo, who is to visit the city Balram lives in –Bangalore,India—in a week's time.What made an Indian entrepreneur living in Bangalore to write such a lengthy letter to the chief of China,describes the condition of India and is the central theme of the story.

                                  Balram explains that something in China is missing in India and vise versa,thus makes occasional comparisons between the two neighbouring nations but ultimately proves that to be feeble excuse for him to unburden himself, and because the premise is so poorly utilised undermines such novel. The story circles around the crime he has on his hands and gets to it in good times ,as he recollects the whole story chronologically.

                                      He was his parents' 'munna' in a tiny hell-hole called Luxmangarh, a place in India, where opportunities were limited. Balram calls himself 'half baked', like many others in the country,not allowed to finish school,with only smattering of all sorts of knowledge. In fact he was smart lad, and that was even recognized by a school inspector,who praised him as 'WHTE TIGER',”the rarest of animals”-the creature that only comes along once in a generation.

            The novel explains how family becomes a priority for Indians which makes their every actions focused on the happy faces of family. But here the protagonist slowly creates a distance from his family. Being a chauffeur of Mr. Ashok and Pinky madam(his wife),he eventually gets in Delhi comfortably far from  his demanding family.

                Balram explains why Indian servants are so honest:because of what he calls Rooster Coop. No matter what the opportunity,a servant won't take advantage of his master. A bag containing a million dollars can be entrusted to any servant,he claims,because doing anything improper would have a terrible consequences. The servant might get away with it but:

     "only a man who is prepared to see his family destroyed, hunted, beaten,and burned alive  by the masters,can break out of the coop. That would take no normal human being,but a freak,a pervert of nature."   And Balram eventually became such a servant due  to his experiences which made him kill his master,Ashok.

                                                                         

                                                                            Yes,The White Tiger 'says a lot' about contemporary India,but it tries to do so far too hard. Adiga has definitely the talent and courage to open the devastating but blinded conditions of India to the public. In the novel,Adiga makes Balram say,'I am tomorrow' which may not be correct at least for some reasons while looking into the developing nature of India...But to an extent its true as whatever development comes,the marginalized people are left to be the same.

                              Through the novel Adiga examines issues of religion,caste,loyalty,corruption and poverty in India. Ultimately Balram transcends his sweet maker caste and becomes a successful entrepreneur, establishing his own taxi service. In a nation proudly shedding the history of poverty and underdevelopment he presents himself as ,”Tomorrow”. To conclude Aravind Adiga's White Tiger is a brilliant social critic which unties the life of ordinary people of outskirts who eventually get transformed to a 'city man' in its real sense.