The White Tiger Novel by Aravind Adiga | Man Booker Prize for fiction in 2008

[The White Tiger Novel by Aravind Adiga]

Meet Balram Halwai, the 'White tiger': servant, philosopher, entrepreneur, murderer... Born in a village in the heart of India, The son of a rickshaw Puller, Balram is taken out of school and put to work in a teashop. As he crushes coal and wipes tables, he nurses a dream of escape. His big chance comes when a rich landlord hires him as a chauffeur for his son, daughter-in-law, and their two pomeranian dogs. From behind the wheels of a honda, Balram sees Delhi and begins to see how the tiger might escape his cage. For surely any successful man must spill a little blood on his way to the top? The White tiger is a tale of two India's. Balram's journey from the darkness of village life to the light of entrepreneurial success is utterly amoral, brilliantly irreverent, deeply endearing, and altogether unforgettable.

A book that empathized every angle of the downtrodden and the helpless servants. Through the character Balram Halwai, Adiga has brought out the "so-called" democracy, the corruption, the freedom that every servant longs in the basement of a gigantic apartment of the city, the dowry, and all the themes that make the poor people powerless. His wizardry of metaphorical characterization is so compelling to pick this book. Not only Balram, with this kind of a novel, but Aravind Adiga himself is 'THE WHITE TIGER'. Lastly, his predictions on Bangalore is terrific and left me without words to describe. Loved it!

About the Author: Aravind Adiga was born in 1974 in Madras (now called Chennai) and grew up in Mangalore in the south of India. He was educated at Columbia University in New York and Magdalen College, Oxford. His articles have appeared in publications such as The New Yorker, The Sunday Times, The Financial Times, and the Times of India. The White Tiger is his first novel and it won the Man Booker Prize for fiction in 2008.

The White Tiger is the debut novel by Indian author Aravind Adiga. It was first published in 2008 and won the 40th Man Booker Prize in the same year. The novel provides a darkly humorous perspective of India's class struggle in a globalized world as told through a retrospective narration from Balram Halwai, a village boy. In detailing Balram's journey first to Delhi, where he works as a chauffeur to a rich landlord, and then to Bangalore, the place to which he flees after killing his master and stealing his money, the novel examines issues of the Hindu religion, caste, loyalty, corruption and poverty in India. Ultimately, Balram transcends his sweet-maker caste and becomes a successful entrepreneur, establishing his own taxi service. In a nation proudly shedding a history of poverty and underdevelopment, he represents, as he himself says, "tomorrow." The novel has been well-received, making the New York Times bestseller list in addition to winning the Man Booker Prize. Aravind Adiga, 33 at the time, was the second youngest writer as well as the fourth debut writer to win the prize in 2008. Adiga says his novel "attempt to catch the voice of the men you meet as you travel through India — the voice of the colos