Punch the ogre !

I recently read this book named ‘White Tiger’ by author Aravind Adiga. This book is a slow and brutal sequence of criticism with a sarcastic tone about almost everything that exists in current India, be it rural area or be it an Urban area.

The story revolves around a guy named Munna who is later christened as ‘Balram’ by a school teacher simply because Munna is not a name in real sense, it means ‘A boy’. He is from a village which he calls ‘The Darkness’ because of lack of privileges and facilities present there. The book describes his experiences through various phases of life spent in village and later in the city where he manages to find work as a driver to a wealthy NRI.

He is a keen observant and a self-motivated learner and above all he has a business mind. The writing style of the book is such a way that he is narrating his story to Premier of China in a book-long letter in first person and all the events have happened in the past while he talks in his letter to the Premier.

Vast disparity between the classes, willingness to get education, disappointment at not able to do so due to extreme poverty, death of father due to poor medical facilities, rural family of too many number of non-working-and-just-eating mouths,
lack of basic facilities due to being born in a village, slavery to the masters - the protagonist faces all this at his early life but he makes
efforts to escape and overcome these hurdles.

He works at a tea-shop and based on the conversations of people coming to tea-shop, decides to make his living by becoming a driver, he learns at every level – a kind of a real education to survive which is probably not taught in any school.

He learns to drive , then finds a job as a driver in a rich man’s house to drive his America returned son ‘Ashok’. He has to fight for all this. he experiences competition, corruption at every level, but he uses his opportunist mind at its best. He understands that there are only two classes, 1. ‘Rich and powerful’
2. Poor and helpless

Poor serve rich , the weak and helpless are servants to Rich and are treated like slaves.

He breaks free from his earlier states to reach a better state. He continuously educates himself from conversations of his masters and realizes that the only way to overcome the disparity between poor, powerless and rich, powerful is to become the latter.

His ambitions turn into rage to get to the top and he murders his master and flees with the huge sum of money to Bangalore where he establishes himself as a
Entrepreneur.
Now he is successful, a part of the lot: “Rich and Powerful”, but His innocence is lost in this journey.

The white tiger resembles to this character of Balram only for the fact that it’s so rare.
It’s rare to find a person willing to overcome the boundaries of classes and poverty , and break the so called ‘rooster coop’ author’s term for people being stuffed in to cages with label as ‘poor/low caste/inter-caste/ unprivileged /workers /servants for ages and are never been able to come out.

This books criticizes almost everything : differences between poor and rich, religious beliefs and racism, politics and political minds, so called entrepreneurs, growing economy, Relationships in the Families living under poverty line, rural life, urban life, globalization, corruption, justice system, marriage system, sexism, illiteracy. You name it , and you have it right there in the book.

I liked this book because I was hooked to it till the end. The protagonist’s long banter hits your head hard. Sometimes, in the middle I just could not put up with the criticism wrapped under the dark humor.
It’s so apt but being an Indian and being already aware of all the issues discussed in the book, I just could not see all of it it out there in front of my eyes at one go, one after other in the form of pages in this book.
Its harsh reality but I would really feel stressed and burdened by it if all of it is put in front of me that way. I felt the pangs of stress by visiting the reality that’s so hard to swallow down.

Sure this books will keep ringing in my head every now and then and you know why it should be: because I am an Indian living under the realities mentioned in the book.

I read on wiki that Adiga explained why the book is written full of criticism. In his words “the criticism by writers like Flaubert, Balzac and Dickens of the 19th century helped England and France become better societies".

Here’s a link to one of his interview:

http://in.rediff.com/news/2008/may/02inter1.htm

I wish Adiga’s vision becomes reality. Sure such books, and criticism might bring a shift in the mindset of Indians and give rise to an improved society.
That’s the reason of writing this post, I would recommend this book to every Indian.

To change the mindset is in our hands, and I do hope that might happen through such criticism although as a slow process but it will happen.

So people! Do read this book.

I wish there may be many writers like Adiga whose criticism can bring this change.
If not, then at least what I am sure to do is ‘punch the ogre’ every time I face people crossing on roads recklessly, mindlessly and crowds replicating more crowds. That’s what Balram does to wash off his frustration and anger. He punches a ogre which is hanging as a show-piece in the front of the City Honda car of his Master 'Ashok'.

Mahananda: Marathi Novel

This novel is written by Jaywant Dalwi. He is one of my favorite writers in Marathi. His writing style is very original and his stories are mostly based on experiences with life, human relationships etc.
He is one writer who can weave humor and tragedy at the same time in the story. My favorite books by him are ‘Saare Pravasi Ghadiche’, ‘Chakra’, ‘Durgi’.


I picked up this novel to read only because it was by Jaywant Dalwi. I did not know anything about the story, later on I found out that a very well known Marathi play named ‘Guntata Hriday he’ is based on this book.
But this is unusual book with a story with lot of social and cultural background.

It’s a love story but various aspects like cultural beliefs just suited of selfish needs, social conditions at that time, emotions like love, Lust , disappointment, happiness, remorse are greatly visible in the story.

This story happens during time when the concept of ‘Devdasi’ was getting dissolved slowly in rural parts of Maharashtra.
The term ‘Devdasi’ refers to woman who is dedicated to God, she is deliberately married to God and has to provide lifelong service to the local temple like cleaning, taking care of temple, perform rituals etc. But apart from just being dedicated to God, she can indulge in her desires and keep sexual relationships with people of her choice.

It’s a story of a young man named ‘Babulnath’ from Urban area who visits his uncle’s house in Konkan. This young man is quite educated and looking forward to live a good life in city. Only till he meets a girl named Mahananda from the village.

This girl is perfect beauty as heroines portrayed in films.
She is a daughter of a ‘Bhavin’ (Devdasi). Although she could not be forced into being a Devdasi like her mother because the concept is outlawed by Government, her mother still wishes she follows the same tradition.

Babulnath meets Mahananda’s mother Kalyani first in the temple and is mesmerized by her persona. Although she is at old age, He fantasizes of having married her if he was born 20-25 years before, when she was young.
He keeps getting fascinated by her that he peeps into vicinity of her house every now and then to get a glimpse of how she lives her life and hopes that she has a daughter who is equally mesmerizing like her.

He seems a bit shallow with his views of love and marriage here because he is interested in pleasures of experiencing something new and gets attracted to sweet talk by Kalyani and while wishing Kalyani could have been young he spots her daughter while peeping through Kalyani’s house, and he immediately gets attracted to her and soon falls madly in love and wants to marry too.
This seems a bit unrealistic and made out kind of a story.

Babulnath and Mahananda develop a relationship pretty fast and Babulnath promises to marry. But Kalyani is against this because she wants Mahananda to follow the same tradition. She is a lady with old beliefs and god-fearing nature, she thinks if ‘Mahananda’ does not follow same tradition, the God might shower them with misfortunes.
Babulnath goes back to city and returns only with a sole aim to marry Mahananda and to take her to city along with him.
But before he reaches Mahananda's home, Mahananda is sent to her uncle’s place and Kalyani repeats the same stories of misfortune that people had to face because they went against ‘God’s wish and married Devdasis. She also tells something shocking to Babulnath which is a turning point for the rest of the story. Babulnath immediately drops the plans to marry Mahananda and without knowing the truth abandons her and goes back to the city.

He lives his life unmarried, working as a teacher and changing from one place to other.

Here as a reader, I was questioning the real feelings of Babulnath. He was traditional, egoistic, shallow, custom-fearing looser. His feeling of love for Mahananda was only for her exterior look.
That’s why he develops relationship with Mahananda very fast and is so much in love with her so much as he gives a part of himself to her.
But how come he fails to trust her when a situation arises where a person who truly loves would have at least tried to meet with her once.
That was the time he should have stood by her side. But he does not and instead of even meeting her he trusts whatever is told by Kalyani and goes his way.

He remains unmarried thoughout his life, but that can not prove his feelings of love for Mahananda. He remains unmarried because he is selfish and coward at the same time.
He is selfish and thats the reason he wants to only marry her hence remains unmarried.
He is coward at the same time because he does not have a courage to accept her in life and fight with the tradition and against all odds.
Instead of fighting with the world and customs he fights with his own self and ruins
his life and ultimately his happiness.


Mahananda is example of a woman betrayed twice. One: by her own mother and Other: by her lover, her character is more real and in-depth.
Kalyani is also a strong character who remains firm on her beliefs even if it destroys the life of her daughter. She does not care about life of her daughter and has no concern if her life goes waste in servicing to so called ‘God’ but actually servicing ‘Men’.
She is a woman who has resigned to traditions and she does not believe in self-identity. She wants to live at the feet of the master and the Master although means ‘God’ in reality it’s the Man who supports her financially. She wants her daughter to face the same tradition.

Babulnath knows his uncle visits Kalyani regularly and pities his aunt as he always has seen her like dead woman walking, without her existence like a woman with no happiness and having grim burden of something all the time. And he questions himself whether such behavior of his uncle towards his wife is justified.

Although it’s a love story there are lot of questions and thoughts when you read this book.
The selfish traditions and how lives were affected by stupid beliefs of a few at that time is visible throughout the story.
Chauvinism, misuse of power and money and fake tradition to enjoy favors of a female by making her ‘Devdasi’, leaving her with no identity and no self-made choices
as per her own wishes, all these facts are deep routed in this story.