Black Tiger

White Tiger: Read a fiction after a long time. Thanks SK, BK and Mam for the B'day present!

Gripping. Entertaining. Humorous. Shocking. Infuriating. Humiliating. A roller coaster of emotions while reading this simple-yet-thoughtful book. I quite liked the way the story unfolds; the language, interpretations & narrations - as from a poor-innocent-villager-driver-murderer-turning-into-smart-entrepreneur.

Yes, on one side, I laughed at the sarcasm, wittiness and the humor in the novel. It made me realize some dark truths about India. Thoughts like: 'Come on, you can't do this to them - the under-privileged', 'Man, am I living in this country? Completely oblivious to what's happening to the poor!', 'S**t, the system is really screwed! How & When can we fix it?', 'We need heroes of Shankar movies to weed out these morons - unethical, corrupt and sucking politicians, bureaucrats & business-men' preoccupied my mind.

But on the another side, his criticisms and remarks on India made me rage with anger: 'Yes, I know my country is not perfect. But is it as bad as he portrays?', 'An American / German / Chinese or any other country man will have equally bad and imperfect things to write about. But will they do so?', 'Is this how an Indian has to present India to an outsider?', 'Thanks, Aravind! you have done a great honour to your mother-land. You made us proud of you for winning the award', 'No wonder the sadistic western judges voted it out for booker award - Who wouldn't like bad-mouthing a threatening, rising neighbour, esp. when the expatriate of the same house becomes the messenger', 'Dude - you are giving a very biased opinion!'

I tried to synthesize and resolve these incongruous view points: The very fact that I had the first view point means that I agree that there is mess - yes, every Indian would agree that there is mess. So, in addition to the self-proclamations of "Incredible India!", it wouldn't harm facing the grass root-level reality. Unless we face it, we won't solve it - we would just be in the conceited state. So, let's face it! But, how about the biased opinions? Screw opinions, man! Who cares? How does it matter if a neighbor thinks that there is some problem in my family - what ultimately matters is the happiness & well-being of my family. But my dear friend, it's not shielded any more - In an increasing flat world, what matters are the impressions and opinions - A country portraying itself as 'powerful with big brother attitude' would be successful in ensuring due respect from small boys, another nation advertising as 'safe, peaceful and sound political system' would simply attract flooding inflow of investments. So, "impression management" is very very very important!

"Haa Haa.. I know what happened to all those big big companies which tried to trance people with their false impression management systems.. so, you better be yourself.. people would appreciate known devils than an unknown Gods.. What have impressed outsiders is the ability of this devil to rise among the self-proclaimed-gods and getting noticed.. Yes, a devil with a messy past.. But future is definitely bright.. We may be just be black devilish tigers.. Nevertheless have the power and capabilities of a white tiger.. So, my dear friend, don't give up HOPE.. Let's imagine India and Create ideas for the new Century*"

Thanks Adiga for this entertaining book. Sorry, for being a little harsh on you - But it helped.

*PS: Got to read 2 chapter experts of the forth-coming book of Nandan Nilekani - "Imagining India" - Very promising - Looking forward for it.