The White Tiger - Aravind Adiga.

This is a debut novel by Aravind Adiga and it also won him the Man Booker prize.

The White tiger is a very interesting and an entertaining read. But it’s hard for me to believe that there was no better writing this year anywhere in the world.

The small villages in India, rampant with illiteracy – where people are blinded with superstition and where people die of diseases like TB are rightfully termed as the Darkness. Balram Halwai, the hero of the book if you may, is from one such place called Laxmangarh which is the Darkness. It is his tale, narrated by him. It is his journey from the Darkness to the light – from Laxmangarh to Bangalore. A white tiger is the rarest creature in the jungle, only coming along once in every generation. Balram Halwai is the white tiger. Morality can sometimes be the cage that the rich use to keep the poor from making that essential leap. Balram is in the cage and it is the story of how he escapes from the cage fighting the rooster coop.

The book is quite fast paced, gripping and very witty. The protagonist’s character is very well-sketched. He is cocky, arrogant, quick-witted, half-baked, disrespectful and supremely quick to seize an advantage. His disrespect for his elders and betters is shocking -- even Mahatma Gandhi gets the lash of his scornful tongue.

This book has added to my sense that morality is a luxury of our situation - and that for all the feel-good factor of being a democracy, for the vast majority of people, there really isn't much difference between us and China except that they have ten ring roads.

-Moi