anyway, now i come at my point to write this post-"The White Tiger".though i am a novice reader but when i heard that a novel by an Indian author has won The man booker prize 2008,i decided to give it a shot(earlier i had attempted "The life of PI"-another booker prize winner and guess what.. like most(common)people it was an atrocious experience for me too.)anyhow,i started reading the book and soon got occupied by protagonist,Balram halwai,who is basically from bihar,where i was born and grew up(a village in begusarai dist of bihar,where my family is still living),and which balram in the course of entire book calls by the name'Darkness'.well ..due to simple language and my curiousity involved for characters i was able to read it in 1 day.what to say..except that it's authenticity is really doubtfull.may be i was prejudiced by book review of THE HINDU -
"For a novel that is supposed to be a portrait of the ‘real’ India, The White Tiger comes across as curiously inauthentic. Is it a novel from one more outsider, presenting cynical anthropologies to an audience that is not Indian? "
but somewhere it gives an exact picture of what this book is all about.now what to say about Booker prize,you write a book on 'real india',abject proverty or dark side of india, and you are entitled to get a literary prize;however unauthentic it is.and all that happens because 'outsider' find it amusing.
let's have a look at this
"A month before the rains, the men came back from Dhanbad and Delhi and Calcutta, leaner, darker, angrier, but with money in their pockets. The women were waiting for them. They hid behind the door, and as soon as the men walked in, they pounced, like wildcats on a slab of flesh. They were fighting and wailing and shrieking. My uncles would resist, and managed to keep some of their money, but my father got peeled and skinned every time. ‘I survived the city, but I couldn’t survive the women in my home,’ he would say, sunk into a corner of the room. The women would feed him after they fed the buffalo. "
it is Adiga's description of bihari migrant workers ,who had gone to cities(outiside 'darkness') to earn their livelihood and after doing hard labour for many months,now they are returning home.don't you think this situation is far-fetched??it's not only impalusible but offensive too.if you have ever been to a village and witnessed such men coming back to their home,i guess i don't need to explain anything.i havn't got words to describe feeling of those man's family.and writer is saying"The women would feed him after they fed the buffalo ",it's disgusting....he has no idea of either the love or despair of people he has written about.
i guess there are many better books than this on 'real india'.and as far as booker prize is concerned i would like to say- a Booker for The White Tiger? What a fucking joke!
