An award for Aravind Adiga

Though full of half-truths, he writes well...
I have long been disillusioned by the literary quality of works which win prestigious literary awards like the Nobel, Booker, Pulitzer, Commonwealth etc. I have been even less impressed by books which make it to of booksellers lists and earn millions of dollars in royalties for their authors. When I heard that two Indians had made it to the last eight entrants for the Booker Prize one being Amitav Ghosh, I assumed that if the award went to an Indian, it would be to Ghosh’s Sea of Poppies because it was the best thing I had read in a long time. However, the prize went to Aravind Adiga’s novel The White Tiger. I had heard of the novel but not read it, nor heard the name of the author. I brought up the subject in my evening mehfil. In the assemblage only my neighbour Reeta Devi had read it: Later she sent me her copy. It took me two days to read it from cover to cover. I found it highly readable. Also infinitely depressing; it is a dark, one-sided picture of India I have ever read. I don’t mind reading harsh criticism of my countrymen, but I find half-truths unpalatable.
A tale of crime The narrator of the story is one Balram Halwai, son of an improverished father who earns his living running a tea-stall by the bus stop of village in Bihar. He has to withdraw Balram from school so that he can earn some money as a rickshaw puller and dish-washer. Balram’s ambition in life is to be a chauffeur. His only chance of doing so is to get employment with the family who own most of the land round their village. They are in big business as the coal merchants in Dhanbad where they live in a large mansion. Balram manages to raise money to learn driving, get a licence and a job as a second driver in the landlord’s family. Balram gets to drive a Maruti Zen. A member of the landlord’s family Ashok goes to America and returns home with Pinkie They decide to settle in Delhi. Balram now in chauffeur’s uniform drives his master and mistress to Delhi in their Honda City Mr Ashok gets into big business bribing everyone who matters: ministers, politicians, middlemen, police, magistrates. Once a very drunk Pinkie madam driving the Honda runs over a child. Balram is made to take the blame. Ultimately the police and the magistrate are squared and nothing happens. Madam Pinkie gets fed up of India and returns to New York. Mr Ashok takes to whoring. Balram ‘dips his beak’ in brothels on GH road. The master-servant relationship comes to an abrupt end one rainy night when the Honda City gets stuck in the mud, while a very drunk Mr Ashok is trying to lift the car out of the mud, Balram smashes his skull with a bottle of Scotch, dumps his body in a bush and decamps with a bagful of high demonation currency notes, and flees to Bangalore. His picture is all over public places among those being sought by the police. Nevertheless, Balram manages to set up a highly lucrative business running a fleet of taxis to take late night workers to their homes. Meanwhile Mr Ashok’s family way back in Dhanbad settle scores by having 17 members of Balram’s family eliminated. That’s how according to Aravind Adiga, things happen in the India of today. He narrates his tale of crime and corruption into his country in a series of seven long imaginary talks to President of the Communist Republic of China.Adiga now says he wants to dedicate his prize winning novel to the people of Delhi. However, it is not the Delhi of which Dilliwalas are proud of — a city of marble palaces, mosques and temples, of ancient forts and mausolea, — all this escapes the author’s eyes. What draws him are slums, stench of drains filled with human concrete, pigs rummaging in garbage dumps, pimps and prostitutes. We, who belong to this city, have nothing to thank him for. But bless him. Though full of half-truths, he writes well. His black humour and biting satire persuades the reader to forgive him.
Nano’s will With a sense of victory and great exultation says Mamata, “Because of my endless agitation I have saved Bengal from industrialisation. And now in the company of Amar Singh, my new-found friend I have set out to save the nation. A nuisance, Nano was anti-people, anti-peasantry. So I have despatched it to Narendra Modi. This my secular credential, this is my card against BJP and next time, if the Marxists bring in industry, Amar Singh and I will take over the country.”