Does The White Tiger roar?
Hi Friends!
I read the book that is currently creating waves because of the fact that the author has become the fourth author with links to India to have bagged the “Man Booker Prize”. It seems many of the book shops were caught on the wrong foot because of the sudden demand for this book when word spread that this had become the front-runner to win the Booker Prize. The book shops were stocked with other books tipped to be the favourite!
With one of the Booker’s panel of judges apparently having gone to the extent to say that the favoured choice of the judges was another book by an Irish Writer (Sebastian Barry for the Secret Scriptures). However Arvind Adiga’s book came from behind to bag the prize because everyone apparently felt that there was “enough of Irish Literature around for some while”! Michael Portillo, who chaired the judges, likened the novel to Shakespeare’s Macbeth because of the fact that the hero realises his dreams through the route of murder!
So is the book a deserving winner? Is it a book that deserves the attention it has achieved?
In the words of Michael Portillo, it is an interesting insight into a country that is becoming more and more important in the global affairs. It typifies the corruption in Indian politics as the author sees it!
Admitted that the book is all about a letter being written by a citizen of the world’s largest democracy to the premier of the world’s largest communist country. Admitted that it is a story of a young achiever who belongs to Bangalore, a city that has seen many a young achiever make it big backed by India’s software revolution. Admitted also is the fact that it’s a popular rags-to riches story, stuff that dreams are made of. Admitted also is the fact that it’s about INDIA, the country that the west is talking about today.
In the minds of an Indian however, will arise that million Dollar question- SO WHAT??
I have no idea as to what the judges look for when considering a book worthy of being nominated for the Booker prize. However, I have been seeing Bollywood films for the last 25 years, ever since I left school and walked into a college with its promise of freedom. Based on my experience of judging movies strictly based on their script, I would rate the book as an A++ in terms of its potential of being turned into a Bollywood block-buster!
Am sure readers of this book will agree with me about the fact that the book was written with a view to sell the script to any of the Bollywood production houses for converting it into a block-buster movie targeted at the millions of movie-goers in India. The story of Balaram Halwai has so often been repeated on the screens of India.
Let me re-fresh the memory of the readers who fail to see my sense of logic!
A small village in some backward area of India, where a village lad grows up in extreme poverty. He decides that he has to get out of the hell-hole that his village stood for and do something worth-while in life. He is angry at the excesses committed by the local landlord and grows up nurturing the flames of getting even with these landlords. He realises that it is only the rich land-lords in the village who remain untouched by the pain and the sufferings that poverty inflicts on the other residents of the village. He wants to be equal to them in dignity and not be ruled by them. His pent up anger acts as the fuel for his ambition. Slowly, he hatches a cruel plot. In order to get even with the land-lords he has to win their confidence first. So he approaches them in the guise of a driver and manages to get himself employed in the household. From there to the driver’s seat of his master’s favourite car, the journey was quickly accomplished and all obstacles on the path taken care of. It was then a matter of waiting for the right time and the opportunity.
While he was waiting for the right time and opportunity to score over his employers and land-lords, he gets an opportunity to get out of the village and experience life in a metropolitan city like Delhi. Life is kind to him and one is reminded of the famous dialogue by SRK in one of the recent films, which goes like this- “If you want something earnestly and from the bottom of your heart, the entire universe connives to ensure that you get the thing!”
The plot of the story thereafter attempts to become a mystery thriller. There is a killing and then comes the great escape of Balaram Halwai; His journey into oblivion and the beginning of a new life for him. Considering that in a country like India is not able to thwart the terrorists from entering our border at their own sweet will it is no wonder that an unknown Indian of the like of Balaram Halwai manages to slip away into oblivion. If you open the pages of any Indian Newspaper you will find many such articles every other day about servants killing their masters and escaping their way to freedom. Some unlucky ones do get caught but if the serial killer of Nithari could continue to kill common man’s children for so long without getting caught, it speaks volumes of how invisible the common man could be, in India.
From here to Bangalore and the rise through the ranks of the society is again stuff that most Indians will not have a difficulty in identifying themselves with. Bribery is an unspoken word in India now but that doesn’t mean its non-existent. On the contrary, it’s become a way of life and so common that people term it as speed money, an expense if one wants to speed up things! For an entrepreneur, time is money and in this capitalistic world, if one wants to become rich quickly, someone else’s time and attention has to be bought!
To return back to my point of argument, I would like to emphasise again that the western world may have found something very novel in the novel and may consider it to be an eye-opener as far as the Indian society is concerned. For one among the billions of Indians, which is me, it is best considered as “food for thought” for a film producer of Bollywood!!
I read the book that is currently creating waves because of the fact that the author has become the fourth author with links to India to have bagged the “Man Booker Prize”. It seems many of the book shops were caught on the wrong foot because of the sudden demand for this book when word spread that this had become the front-runner to win the Booker Prize. The book shops were stocked with other books tipped to be the favourite!
With one of the Booker’s panel of judges apparently having gone to the extent to say that the favoured choice of the judges was another book by an Irish Writer (Sebastian Barry for the Secret Scriptures). However Arvind Adiga’s book came from behind to bag the prize because everyone apparently felt that there was “enough of Irish Literature around for some while”! Michael Portillo, who chaired the judges, likened the novel to Shakespeare’s Macbeth because of the fact that the hero realises his dreams through the route of murder!
So is the book a deserving winner? Is it a book that deserves the attention it has achieved?
In the words of Michael Portillo, it is an interesting insight into a country that is becoming more and more important in the global affairs. It typifies the corruption in Indian politics as the author sees it!
Admitted that the book is all about a letter being written by a citizen of the world’s largest democracy to the premier of the world’s largest communist country. Admitted that it is a story of a young achiever who belongs to Bangalore, a city that has seen many a young achiever make it big backed by India’s software revolution. Admitted also is the fact that it’s a popular rags-to riches story, stuff that dreams are made of. Admitted also is the fact that it’s about INDIA, the country that the west is talking about today.
In the minds of an Indian however, will arise that million Dollar question- SO WHAT??
I have no idea as to what the judges look for when considering a book worthy of being nominated for the Booker prize. However, I have been seeing Bollywood films for the last 25 years, ever since I left school and walked into a college with its promise of freedom. Based on my experience of judging movies strictly based on their script, I would rate the book as an A++ in terms of its potential of being turned into a Bollywood block-buster!
Am sure readers of this book will agree with me about the fact that the book was written with a view to sell the script to any of the Bollywood production houses for converting it into a block-buster movie targeted at the millions of movie-goers in India. The story of Balaram Halwai has so often been repeated on the screens of India.
Let me re-fresh the memory of the readers who fail to see my sense of logic!
A small village in some backward area of India, where a village lad grows up in extreme poverty. He decides that he has to get out of the hell-hole that his village stood for and do something worth-while in life. He is angry at the excesses committed by the local landlord and grows up nurturing the flames of getting even with these landlords. He realises that it is only the rich land-lords in the village who remain untouched by the pain and the sufferings that poverty inflicts on the other residents of the village. He wants to be equal to them in dignity and not be ruled by them. His pent up anger acts as the fuel for his ambition. Slowly, he hatches a cruel plot. In order to get even with the land-lords he has to win their confidence first. So he approaches them in the guise of a driver and manages to get himself employed in the household. From there to the driver’s seat of his master’s favourite car, the journey was quickly accomplished and all obstacles on the path taken care of. It was then a matter of waiting for the right time and the opportunity.
While he was waiting for the right time and opportunity to score over his employers and land-lords, he gets an opportunity to get out of the village and experience life in a metropolitan city like Delhi. Life is kind to him and one is reminded of the famous dialogue by SRK in one of the recent films, which goes like this- “If you want something earnestly and from the bottom of your heart, the entire universe connives to ensure that you get the thing!”
The plot of the story thereafter attempts to become a mystery thriller. There is a killing and then comes the great escape of Balaram Halwai; His journey into oblivion and the beginning of a new life for him. Considering that in a country like India is not able to thwart the terrorists from entering our border at their own sweet will it is no wonder that an unknown Indian of the like of Balaram Halwai manages to slip away into oblivion. If you open the pages of any Indian Newspaper you will find many such articles every other day about servants killing their masters and escaping their way to freedom. Some unlucky ones do get caught but if the serial killer of Nithari could continue to kill common man’s children for so long without getting caught, it speaks volumes of how invisible the common man could be, in India.
From here to Bangalore and the rise through the ranks of the society is again stuff that most Indians will not have a difficulty in identifying themselves with. Bribery is an unspoken word in India now but that doesn’t mean its non-existent. On the contrary, it’s become a way of life and so common that people term it as speed money, an expense if one wants to speed up things! For an entrepreneur, time is money and in this capitalistic world, if one wants to become rich quickly, someone else’s time and attention has to be bought!
To return back to my point of argument, I would like to emphasise again that the western world may have found something very novel in the novel and may consider it to be an eye-opener as far as the Indian society is concerned. For one among the billions of Indians, which is me, it is best considered as “food for thought” for a film producer of Bollywood!!
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