Hey All
I know its been a long time since I was here......
All of us must have seen the latest news, Aravind Adiga, another Indian won the Mans Booker Prize for 2008 for his book, 'The White Tiger'. I made it a point to buy this book as soon as I heard about it because it promised to potray a side of India nobody knew about....
The book starts off on an altogether different note... This guy Balram Halwai is writing a letter to Wen Jiabao, the Chinese premier as he hs just heard that the latter is visiting India. He spends a better part of the first chapter cynically pointing out the various things that will be shown and provided to the Chinese premier as part of the official protocol.... He goes about therefore starting to explain what his India or the real India is like....
In a nutshell, Balram Halwai is a guy who starts his life in a not-so-important village somewhere in rural India..... He then describes his life as a toddler and a young man talking about the hardships that any young man faces in rural India even today... There are the regular cliches about right and wrong, poverty, lack of Infrastructure, zamindari etc...
Following this sort of childhood and with a stroke of luck, the guy lands up as a driver for a former zamindar.... Here, he works his heart out but the rough upbringing has resulted in a sort of covert brutality and roughness in the guy... He starts observing the life of his master in the city and also starts to dream big...
In a quest to achieve this greatness and to get rich quick, this guy murders his husband on a lonely night.... and then starts his escape from the arms of the law.... Thus carrying on , he finally reaches Bangalore, the IT capital of India...
The end of the novel shows Balram Halwai running his own Call Centre cab company and as a rich man, who on his self reflection believes that in spite of all his money, he is still missing something and that is a guilt free life....
Overall,an awesome read.... Truly shows a lifestyle that you never know existed in our country... A must read for the youngsters (20 - 40)...a large bracket, I know!!
Eminence
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3 comments:
Boss.. Read his articles in TIME.. they are also good !!
I guess the only place one gets to read about the reality of life in India today is in the pages of one of the many books making their way out of India from young authors like Aravind!!He tries to paint a picture of India which is of a nearly feudal society!! In the end balram grows up to be a wildly successful Indian entrepreneur!!
"In a quest to achieve this greatness and to get rich quick, this guy murders his husband on a lonely night"
He was GAY???????
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