The White Tiger

Courtesy to a kind friend, I got to read the book The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga. This book has won the Man Booker prize for the year 2008. So I had absolutely no doubts about the literary quality of Adiga’s writing. After all, how many books have been so honoured? Another thing I knew without any doubt even before reading the reviews and comments was the fact that the book was strong on a social cause. For obvious reasons, you cannot blame me if I thought the social cause was wild life conservation. It does voice about life conservation. Conservation of millions of lives that are treated less amiably than wild animals – the poor, people whose lives are lived by the rich because of the fact that they do not have the money and power to live their own lives. The white tiger is all about the ocean wide divide of the rich and the poor in the biggest democratic nation in the world.

Balram Halwai, the protagonist of the novel is born into a financially deprived household in a village on the banks of the river Ganga. How his life progresses from innocence to psychopathic to prosperity in alterations of darkness and light is narrated by Balram himself. The book is an extensive letter to the Chinese emissary, Mr. Wen Jiabao. Jiabao comes visiting India and his agenda includes meeting the highly successful entrepreneurs of India, to learn the nuances of entrepreneurship. The emissary will also be enlightened on the ‘success’ story of the way of India's governance, that is the democracy in the nation. Owing to the irony here, I am forced to quote Balram’s ex employer - ‘What a fucking joke!’ indeed.

Dark, ironic, sarcastic, sad, wicked, humourous in parts, innocent in parts: these are the words and phrases that could possibly describe Aravind Adiga’s debut novel. One word that I have left out so that I can singly highlight it is ‘Angry’. It is an angry book, that anger will reflect even from you when you read it. When you see the author’s face that is printed on the back cover, you will surely find it difficult to believe that this work of calculated anger is a product of that smiling person’s brain.

The language used is very fundamental, only rarely does few big words creep into the work. The very first few pages set the mood of the narration. From there on the book oozes with ridicule for the whole governance system and its leaders. Adiga has brought so many topics to the surface, not really examining them, but thrusting them on the face of the readers. Some of them are topics which nobody dares to probe and question fearing the uproar of communities, majority and otherwise. Exploitation of the poor, child labour, the practise of dowry, half-baked politicians as leaders of the country, overrating of the polluted river Ganga, religious divisions, people worshipping multiple gods with no sense of spirituality whatsoever, employers framing servants for crimes, the corrupted-to-root police force - For all these and more, the author uses the mouth piece of the illiterate, oppressed and psychically challenged Balram to sound off his concerns about the ‘free’ India. Though subtly, he has also questioned extremely delicate topics like the supposed effectiveness of Gandhian principles.

The book essays how the ignorant Balram’s mind gets twisted due to oppression and how it leads him to being irrational and radically evil. Reading through the book, you will tend to stop and think that though shameful, what has been narrated could well be the true story of a good percentage of people living in the Independent India. The writer points out that India has always been two different countries, he describes them as the light and the darkness.

In one of the reviews on the internet, a book seller admits that the sales of this book has risen since the honorary recognition given to it, but he personally does not like selling the book since he thinks that the author has insulted our country. This has been the case for the three most recent Indian books that won the Man Booker prize. Arundhati Roy's "god of small things' and Kiran Desai's "Inheritance of Loss' suffered the same fate in the hands of the angry Indian reader/reviewer. In another review a popular daily has rightly noted that the Indian tourism board will not like Aravind Adiga for what he has written in his book. It is sure to raise eyebrows across borders too, though what I hope Adiga wanted was to raise some Indian eyebrows, forcing people to think, follow the thoughts by action.

Ente Keralam

A place that never ceases to amaze visitors. Right from the unbelievable greenery to the extremist population, each and every aspect of every day life in Kerala is a novelty to the unaccustomed eye.

In most towns, the roads are so curvy and slopes are so steep that they have more blind curves than an average hill station! Besides, the average speed of vehicles on road, especially cars is 80 kmph. In the plains, the roads seem to be precariously placed on the water irrigated fields like floating threads and in the hilly area, there are houses on top of hillocks that have hand made roads that put the best of brakes are gears to test. Well, it takes some skill to drive here, hats off to those who possess these skills. I know quite a few who do- a good number of my cousins.

While driving on the roads of places like Kottayam, you see sign boards on the roads indicating curves ahead as 'Z' in various angles.
You would think thats an exaggeration. Although, after you go through the curves, you wonder if the 'Z' has done justice to the curves, because by the time you finish one, your body would have swung towards atleast four different directions.

One other thing that is simply amazing about this state is the food. God's own indeed. Its a foodie's paradise. Few dishes that I consider truly out of the world - tapioca and fish curry (kappa meen curry), paalappam and stew, buttermilk curry with cucumber/white pumpkin, duck curry with parota/chapathi. Actually, the best of kappa meen is available in the notorious toddy(alcohol) shops, the second best is home made. and dont even get me started on their home made wines!
It is with much self control and that I am wrapping up this topic. this list and detailed description can go on for miles.

Politics. Every single individual is a strong supporter of one or the other party. They have sharp views on leaders and policies and they consider politics very much a part of daily life, unlikeTamilnadu where politics of the state figures nowhere in day to day conversations.

Calvin and I

Everyone hates me!

Oh Monday.. its not your fault honey. If it were any other day in your place, i am sure everyone will hate that day. Come on cheer up, I hate to see you so sad. Listen, I just want you to know that we dont have anything personal against you. In fact, its not about you at all.

The problem is entirely on a different plane. I will try to explain. Well, I do not intend to scare you, but there is no other way to make you understand, I think i will have to say its name. Brace yourself, Monday, I will just whisper it in your ears. Its called..WORK. Oh sweetheart, please dont cry. No no baby, it wont hurt you, really it wont. It eats only people, sometimes it just stresses them out, it sucks up their personal life. It also puts in a lot of hate inside people, that makes people hate others, and thats how we hate you. You see the connection now? Does that make you feel better? Honey, believe me when I say, Its not at all about you, but I am sorry, we hate you.

You see its a completely different matter that I would not hate you so much if i just sat and finished that report my boss wanted instead of writing an ode of hate to you. But you know us, we are people, we are like that. We need someone to blame. As much as we hate you, we still need you. and besides 'blues' cannot sound better without you.

and hey, if it makes you feel any better, think of it this way, no other day enjoys so much of attention like you do. Who? Saturday and Sunday?? oh oh, they are just jealous of you. Dont you listen to what they say. You are the most popular. Do i like them? oh no i dont, not at all. Well, maybe just a little. but hey, remember - You are still the most popular. Everybody hates you! you are the best! Are you cute, you ask? Of course you are! you are the cutest of them all!

Monday is the best! who agrees with me? lets vote and cheer up poor monday!

Online application for voter id

I got this info just today, if you do not have a voter id yet, you can apply online in this link: http://www.elections.tn.nic.in/

I think other states may have similar pages, this is specifically for the Tamilnadu state.

A colleague gave me the link, and being the responsible citizen that i am (ahem..), I am sharing it with you. but hurry, the site says the option is available only till 20 Aug (wednesday). You need to have a scanned passport size photo of yourself to upload in the application form.

whats a perfect day

This blog is late by a day (not that someone was waiting for it anyway..

Yesterday, was THE day. just the thought of it fills my heart with joy.
no, im not talking about the olympic gold. Thats national joy, of course i am happy about it. Kudos to Abhinav Bindra, and good luck to Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore. I hope he betters his Athens silver to a Beijing gold this time.

here, i am talking about a single soul's jubiliation. the 11th day of August, year 2008, i started from home, 9.15 AM in the morning, and , AND not a single red light stopped me en route office, even though the roads were crowded with vehicles. it was just green, green and more green. is this really my city? sometimes, we get so lucky that we are surprised, words fail us.. thinking abt yesterday, oh it chokes me.. sniff..

im not putting this up here for the heck of it, just needed to remember that days like yesterday do happen, they havent stopped making them yet.

thats not to say that i was on time. i was late to office, but thats a different story you see.

on second thoughts, this whole thing of one waying the city roads is not so bad eh.

Mashing it up by Elliots

When we want to celebrate Chennai, what do we do? We go to the beach! Obviously.

So thats what a gang of us were doing on Saturday evening at the Elliots beach, among the incessant waters, countless people and the delicious roasting corn.

The waves and the amazing stillness before another break-out of the waves.. Ah Chennai. Ya, this well frog knows no better :) frankly, i dont care to. I am happy with ma Chennai!

After walking aimless on the sidewalks we settled at MASH to snack. This is one place that I had always wanted to go to. because it has an open design, totally taking advantage of the sea breeze, was higher than ground level (first floor) and had a table that ovelooks the road, the crowd and then the sea itself. and as luck may have it, we got that table.

I could not ask for more. But more happened, the heavens gates opened and it started pouring. It was amusing to watch the over-crowded beach emtying in under 20 seconds as people ran for cover from the rain.

As for me, I sat at the table with stowaway drizzles patting me now and then. The place had a good roof, it never leaked for the water to get in.

Now about the food. Mash has one of those amusing menu cards with the likes of 'Jame's Bondas' and 'Aachi kari stroganoff'. We settled for fish n chips and a panneer sandwich (for the unfortunate veggie).

With 3 of us and 2 dishes served on the table, of course a lot of fighting and haggling followed with the food disappearing in a matter of seconds leaving us with ‘Is that all??’

I dont remember if the food tasted good, so no comments on taste or quality. actually, the food was gone even before there was a chance for evaluation.

Friends, waves, food and a drizzle - a perfect weekend, stuff that totally guarantees future nostalgia!

As we were still lazing on the verandah, my friend got a call from home ordering him to get back home. His folks were worried. Bangalore had a series of 8 bomb blasts on Friday, and today (Saturday) Ahmedabad had 18.

it was all over the TV news. All the blasts were aimed at civilians, all in highly public areas. There was an expert panel on TV and in their opinion, Chennai is probably the next targeted city.

Where would someone plant bombs if the target was Chennai? Spencer plaza, Pondy Bazar, Marina, Elliots....Silence prevailed as we looked out at the waters.

’Err..Hey its nearly 8’
‘Ya, getting late’
‘We better leave’
‘hmm yeah’

With the showers ending their performance and just a slight drizzle playing, we went our ways. That doesnt mean my future nostalgic moments are spoilt, just that we have one more item to add to the exotic list, bomb threat! well, not very exotic if u ask me