Despite all those facts, my mind is far away from my present location…Curry, chapatti, paan, buffalos, rickshaws, slums, outsourcing hubs, 5 star hotels, sweat, heat, various people’s destinies and amazing landscape – planet India.
Aravind Adiga was the one who has got hooked up many to his novel, giving away a story about successful “entrepreneur “Balram Halwai in India’s south Banglore..No wonder, that Aravind was awarded by Man Brooker Prize in 2008. (All of you can read the reviews online when you will look up The White Tiger)
So, I will focus on my take from this novel. Please, share with me your opinions, my dear friends from all around the globe! I am great listener and even author composed this book by talking to people.
I have bought this book by “accident”, when I have had last 50 AED note in my wallet during my last visit in Dubai. Price of the book was 50 AED and it was on the central stands in the bookshop as bestseller. However, I don’t like to follow the crowd, I have taken it. “Nice color and cover of the book”, I thought myself.
Start: 27th December 2008, 4:00 AM
Underlined places of the book and notes have made my thoughts run in my head and I have learned many new facts, which I didn’t know about India, even despite 3 years spent with many Indian friends and now I even understand them more…especially those who are called office BOY even at their forties…
Interesting facts:
• Bohd Gaya is the town where lord Budha sat under tree and found enlightment
• Benaras is the holiest spot on the river Ganga
• Balram is sidekick of the god Krishna
• Halwai is cast of sweet makers
• Cast system is still present with very strong family pressures and loyality
• Corruption is part of day to day life: in health care instutions , educational system, police departments and government offices
• Poor people in the north drink tea and poor people in the south drink coffee.
Underlined parts of the book, I want to share with you:
• Servants are obsessed with being called “sir” by other servants
• Trustworthiness of servants is the basis of the entire economy, who are caught in the scoop like roosters before getting killed by butcher, they don’t even try to escape from the scoop…
• Dreams of the rich and dreams of the poor never overlap…the poor dream all their lives to get enough food and looking like rich. And rich are dreaming of losing weight…Ironic, huh?
• The moment you show cash, everyone knows your language.
• Everyone who counts in this world, has killed someone or other on their way to the top.
• The moment you recognize what is beautiful in this world, you stop being a slave..
Balram broke the chains of his slavery, got out from the scoop….Made himself a free man, he let his spirit out of the cage made by rules and boundaries built by society…
I am just wondering...
- Why can be people so cruel to other human beings? Are not we all one?
- How can be respect to human life changing its levels as the casts are lowering? Aren’t we all one?
- Who has got the power and influence in hands is mostly the greediest one…Don’t we all need to eat just 3 meals a day and sleep on one bed at a time?
Hmm…and the same night when I finished the book, I have bumped into a movie trailer Slumdog Millionaire. I have just finished watching the movie. Please do the same.
When you will combine it with novel White Tiger, you will understand my urge to write down this lines.
My next steps: trip to India...
Finish: 7th January 11:45 PM
Cheers and awaiting your feedback
i.
2 comments:
Underlined parts of the book, I want to share with you:
• Servants are obsessed with being called “sir” by other servants
We are all servants of someone or something in this world. The leading business people are the servants of banks or the servant of those they wish to make wealth for. Thus the servants are often the biggest business people.
If not servants of the banks, those who grow business from cash-in-the-bank, will be the servant of tax requests, health care systems for their team, and/or those wishing to share in the achievements of the successful person.
We are all servants somewhere – just the level that changes
• Trustworthiness of servants is the basis of the entire economy, who are caught in the scoop like roosters before getting killed by butcher, they don’t even try to escape from the scoop…
There is also a good argument that being inside the club enables you to question and challenge the system – trying to do that from outside can be a more difficult exercise.
Therefore, working from within can be a bonus.
• Dreams of the rich and dreams of the poor never overlap…the poor dream all their lives to get enough food and looking like rich. And rich are dreaming of losing weight…Ironic, huh?
Not always the case. Ask a person with an eating disorder. They will share the above doesn’t apply to the entire world. Often people on low incomes can appear to over weight. The illusion is in the eye.
• The moment you show cash, everyone knows your language.
Yes and No. The person who shouts in front of groups that he/she has donated XXXXXX amount to a charity is clearly a person who desires something they do not have. However, the person that show cash in terms of rewarding team players for the requested activities being actioned in good order could easily be a person who has seen the way forward.
• Everyone who counts in this world, has killed someone or other on their way to the top.
Again a yes/no response. Some people live by the sword. This is clear from both economic and physical troubles around the world. However, if it is a person does a bad thing to you and that bad thing is clearly a bad thing then should the recipient just turn the other cheek every time. Or should the recipient strive to ensure that the same actions are not placed on another in the future.
In the final reference, the recipient becomes a person who saves others from being killed. However, the bad person would see the recipient as being the killer – now that is ironic.
• The moment you recognize what is beautiful in this world, you stop being a slave..
Here I share that the world does not have unlimited resources. Therefore, the slave is the person who had yet to realise that just turning off one light, when not needed, can become the master of the future and future generations. Thus recognising the beauty around you can turn you from a slave to a master.
I am just wondering...
- Why can be people so cruel to other human beings? Are not we all one?
That is a dream put forward by many until be factor in we are all humans and therefore have different dreams and desires.
Many religions claim we are all “one”. If this is true why do people claim to murder innocent people in the name of religion?
The good human beings understand we are all different and make allowances whilst also recognising and respecting the area around them
- How can be respect to human life changing its levels as the casts are lowering? Aren’t we all one?
Standards vary, that’s not to say one persons standard is better or worse than another. We have to respect that a person who has very little in terms of what we describe as creature comforts can have what appears to be lower standards than others. Equally, there are some who claim lower standards are good and yet insist on taking hand-outs from the winners of the world. So if we are all one should not the people taking hand-outs for now reason be refused the hand-outs? We are all one if we use our best endeavours to our given skills to the maximum – then I would agree we would be as one.
- Who has got the power and influence in hands is mostly the greediest one…Don’t we all need to eat just 3 meals a day and sleep on one bed at a time?
That is a view that may well lead to many now being able to create three meals a day. Some people need the assistance of others to enable them to generate the resources to make the minimum standards available.
It could be argued that the greedy people will give another a fish to eat, therefore holding influence over the person eating the fish. However, the person who gives the people the skills and tools so that they can fish for themselves may initially be viewed as having influence. However, there power is in the fact they can help others.
In summary, there are no black and white answers – without an element of grey, not so that black and white are removed, the world returns to the stone age. Encouraging grey areas that can be further questioned and developed into positive areas are a fabulous tool(s).
LOL, how is it that I am not surprised you liked the book... I have a thought on the Rooster Coop. I think it is about a self perpetuating sytem, because people are affraid of the unknown. Although they know that inside the coop, they are maybe not best of, they are affraid of the unknown adventures outside of it. So they prefer to stay in and punish those that want to get out. Because it will change their safe environment for them.
Next, I interpreted the reference to evaryone that counts, has killed someone as an excuse. The White Tiger is not proud of him killing his employer. It was a metaphorical break with the system that kept him from achieving his goals.
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