Book 40: "The White Tiger" by Aravind Adiga
Wednesday, September 7th, 2011 21:07![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kittiwake“Your Excellency, I am proud to inform you that Laxmangarh is your typical Indian village paradise, adequately supplied with electricity, running water, and working telephones; and that the children of my village, raised on a nutritious diet of meat, eggs, vegetables, and lentils, will be found, when examined with tape measure and scales,, to match up to the minimum height and weight standards set by the United Nations and other organizations whose treaties our prime minister has signed and whose forums he so regularly and pompously attends.
Ha!
Electricity poles – defunct.
Water tap – broken.
Children – too lean and short for their age, and with oversized heads from which vivid eyes shine, like the guilty conscience of the government of India .
Yes, a typical Indian village paradise, Mr Jiabao. One day I'll have to come to China and see if your village paradises are any better.”
Although "the White Tiger" is an amusing read, the narrator Balram - murderer, ex-servant and entrepreneur - does not see India through rose-tinted spectacles. His India is split into two very different worlds, the Darkness (the poorer interior of the country, still oppressed by the brutal landlords) and the Light (the richer coastal areas where there is the possibility for a poor man to better himself). Balram sees himself as a white tiger, a rare beast who has managed to break out of the Rooster Coop and leave the Darkness, moving into the Light and reinventing himself as an entrepreneur in Bangalore.
Really enjoyable.
Ha!
Electricity poles – defunct.
Water tap – broken.
Children – too lean and short for their age, and with oversized heads from which vivid eyes shine, like the guilty conscience of the government of India .
Yes, a typical Indian village paradise, Mr Jiabao. One day I'll have to come to China and see if your village paradises are any better.”
Although "the White Tiger" is an amusing read, the narrator Balram - murderer, ex-servant and entrepreneur - does not see India through rose-tinted spectacles. His India is split into two very different worlds, the Darkness (the poorer interior of the country, still oppressed by the brutal landlords) and the Light (the richer coastal areas where there is the possibility for a poor man to better himself). Balram sees himself as a white tiger, a rare beast who has managed to break out of the Rooster Coop and leave the Darkness, moving into the Light and reinventing himself as an entrepreneur in Bangalore.
Really enjoyable.
