The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga

I just finished the Booker Winner called The White Tiger. I picked it up for the obvious reason, its a Booker Winner. It talks about entrepreneur. And it talks about New Delhi, the city where I have lived since birth and Bangalore, the city I have lived in for some time.

It tells the story of a certain Balram Halvai born into a very poor family in desolate village in India. His life as a servant, his life with his employer and how he robs and murders his employer before moving to Bangalore and striking it rich.

I hate it. Not because its badly written. Its a good read. It is witty and snazzy. Talking about practicalities of life. Not too flowery language, but not shoddily written either. It scores good points on presentation.

BUT, the plot. Mr. Adiga misses the whole point when it comes to plot. He has written a book which is too formulaic. It reeks of efforts to be accepted in the western lit circles. The characters are cliched. The oppressive landlords, corrupt policemen, a simple trustful urban Indian man, bossy modern and exhibitionist American-Indian woman. They just fit into well known moulds that literature has created. The character development is average but the reason of murder isn't convincing enough. The narrative of the book is mostly exaggerated to the extent of being way over-the-top.

But something the really bothers me is the lack of research on the part of the author. In one section, the authors tells you how Balram's master goes to the President's House to bribe one of the cabinet ministers. Cabinet ministers do not sit in the President's House. Their offices are all around New Delhi. In fact, The President has very limited influence on the governance and is generally considered a rubber-stamp at the hands of the Prime-Minister and the Cabinet.

The corruption is a serious problem in India, most ministers are corrupt including many of the cabinet ministers. However, its almost never that straight forward . The sums of money that the author talks about are a joke and its never a simple give-and-take process. On a side-note Mohd. Azhruddin lost his captaincy of India cricket team in 1999, almost 6 years prior to 2005 when this novel is set. His narrative of New Delhi are flimsy and it is very evident that he hasn't lived in the city.

Overall its a disappointment and more so because it got an undeserving Booker just because it played upto the west's imagination about India.