The White Tiger

Author: Aravind Adiga
Pages: 321
My Rating: 4.5/5



This book, the winner of the Man Booker Prize 2008 had generated a lot of curiosity among the readers and I was eagerly waiting to get a hand on it too; wanted to figure out if it was just a hype or there was really some substance in it, worthy of the prize. I picked it up in Dec'08 and nearly took a month to finish because of the hectic work schedule, but if I count the actual number of days I read the book, I have probably taken about 4-5 days...

In this debut novel, Aravind Adiga explores the hefty issue of India's class struggles - the unhappy division of the social classes; the social & economic inequalities of the rich and the poor. The plot centers around Balram Halwai, who is born and raised in a remote village in north india which is completely controlled by feudal lords. He finally moves to Delhi as a driver to one of the rich landlord's sons - Ashok, who has returned from America. This is where Balram gets exposed to a completely new set of people, lifestyle, customs etc. and decides that he is not going to live his entire life being a servant. He develops a strong ambition to break out of the 'rooster coop' (the phrase is used as a metaphor by the author thru out the book) and become the white tiger - a symbol of power, individualism & freedom.

After reading the book, I feel it so totally deserved the booker prize. First of all, I loved Adiga's style of writing. Novels which deal with socio-economic inequalities can really get lengthy and boring, but Adiga chose to present it in a totally different style - a way in which the protagonist is narrating his story to the President of China who is in search of Indian entrepreneurs, in the form of letters. Secondly, Adiga has not just accumulated details of suffering or facts in the novel but he has explained it in a very compelling way by creating two disparate worlds that Balram lives in - one in the darkness of his native village and the other is his glittery life in Delhi. He also does present a beautiful contrast between the life in delhi and bangalore, when Balram escapes from Delhi after murdering his master, and becomes and entrepreneur in bangalore (This is not a spoiler, btw :) )

Last but not the least, the view of India presented by Adiga is obivously just one of them. There are many more alternate views of India which are unheard or uncontacted. He does look like a promising author and I am eagerly waiting to read his next book!

Change of look..

Had to change the template of this blog again 'coz the tabbed template refused to load all of a sudden :( So I chose a very simple 3 column template this time around and saved myself some time! I love this coffee template though :)

2008 - Round up

Just compiling a list of all the books that I managed to read in 2008. My target was to read about 25 but this is what I finally managed! Still...not bad I guess :)

1. The Inscrutable Americans - Anurag Mathur
2. The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
3. The Reluctant Fundamentalist - Mohsin Hamid
4. Sister of my heart - Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
5. A Thousand Splendid Suns - Khaled Hosseini
6. The Bastard of Istanbul - Elif Shafak
7. Unaccustomed Earth - Jhumpa Lahiri
8. Lolita - Vladimir Nabakov
9. In the Country of Men - Hisham Matar
10.The Last Lecture- Randy Pausch
11. AIDS Sutra - Anthology (Multiple Authors)
12. Purple Hibiscus - Chimamanda Adichie
13. Bridget Jones's Diary - Helen Fielding
14. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adamas
15. After Dark - Haruki Murakami

Orbis Terrarum Challenge - Round up

Am finally done with the OT challenge hosted by Bethany. This was my first ever reading challenges and I completely enjoyed it!! If not for this challenge, I would have probably never read books from so many different countries :)

Here's the list of my 9 books with the links to the reviews -

1. The Reluctant Fundamentalist - Mohsin Hamid (Pakistan)

2. Sister of my Heart - Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni (India)

3. A Thousand Splendid Suns - Khaled Hosseini (Afghanistan)

4. Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov (Russia)

5. The Bastard of Istanbul - Elif Shafak (Turkey/Armenia)

6. In the Country of Men - Hisham Matar (Libya)

7. Purple Hibiscus - Chimamanda Adichie (Nigeria)

8. Bridget Jones's Diary - Helen Fielding (England)

9. After Dark - Haruki Murakami (Japan)

Here's the representation of the countries covered above

Bethany also has a small survey hosted, as part of the OT challenge round up -

Orbis Terrarum 2008 Challenge survey:

1.) What did you like about the challenge?

I loved the concept of reading different authors from different countries. I would have never picked up books from so many different countries, becoz I am quite choosy when it comes to reading books...

2.) What would you like to see change for next year?

Nothing! Love the way it is..

3.) About the rules, or the non-existent rules...did you like that?

I think too many rules make it more un-interesting. I liked the basic rules defined here and hte flexibility to change the list anytime during the year

4.) Are you going to join us next year?

Yup! Waiting to join..

5.) Pretty please give me any suggestions for changes, the betterment of the challenge, or just anything that you would like to see changed for next year.

Keeping the rules as it was during this year, and a suggestion of few books/countries for the next year would be a great idea!

6.) Would you like the challenge to be more involved? What if we read books together sometimes? Would that interest you?

I probably wouldnt go for this coz of my busy schedule...I usually tend to read whenever I manage to squeeze time out of my work..

7.) would you be interested in helping somehow next year? How would you like to help?

By blogging about the challenge so that more readers get acquainted to it :)

After Dark

Author: Haruki Murakami

Pages: 201

My Rating: 4.0/5

As part of the OT challenge, one author I was really keen on taking up was Haruki Murakami. It was pretty tough for me to decide which one of his books I need to pick up first coz every book seemed to have great reviews. Finally I decided to read "After Dark" which is set in Japan..

The novel is about incidents that take place in one night (around midnight to 7am) in the Tokyo city. There are different people involved in different situations but somehow they are all connected. If any of you have watched the movies 'Crash (English)' or 'Is Raat ki Subah Nahi (Hindi)', the concept is pretty much the same.. it just feels really different reading it!

The book has 2 main characters - Eri and Mari who are sisters. While Mari spends a sleepless night inside a restaurant, Eri sleeps in her room furnished with just a bed and a television. She sleeps thru out the book, till the end. Her sleep doesnt seem natural.

I don't think I understood Eri's character very well. The author does indicate at some parts that Eri has some psychological issues or emotional problems that she hasn't shared with anyone in her family, including her sister. We get to know this from the conversation between Mari and Eri's friend. So I guess the author was trying to show Eri's state of mind, while she slept, using the television set as a reference to her inner self (state of her mind). Anyway am still not sure if my interpretation is right. So if you have read the book and you have thoughts on this, do leave me a comment...

Parallely we see other stories - there is a chinese prostitute who is injured and Mari goes to her rescue; a strange guy who works in a software company and prefers to stay in office thru out the night and doesnt seem to share a good relationship with his family; we also come across Eri's friend who meets Mari in the restaurant she is sitting in that night. Somehow, all these characters are connected to each other and lead into a complex story...

I really didnt quite get the ending..and tried hard to research it online but in vain. Maybe I need to read it again to understand better. But that didnt stop me from liking the book. I thoroughly enjoyed reading it. It's a very short book, but intense, complex, intriguing and extremely well written. Definitely worth a read!!

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

Author: Douglas Adams
Pages: 216
My Rating: 4.0/5

I have never read any sci-fi book in my life and never had the inclination to do so. I picked this up without knowing it was related to sci-fi, only becoz it was highly recommended by friends - and I dont regret it one bit!! It's one of the most hilarious books I have read so far..

"The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" is the first book in the 5-part series which involves Arthur Dent and his friend Fort Prefect; and their journey through the galaxy. Arthur Dent is an ordinary earthman who is taken away by his friend Ford (who hails from a small planet somewhere in the vicinity of Betelguese and is also the researcher of the book 'The Hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy') few seconds before the earth is demolished. They hitch a ride on one of the Vogon spaceships and meet - Zaphod, the President of the Galaxy who is travelling in one of the new spaceships - The Heart of Gold, with the Infinite Improbability Drive. What follows later through their journey is what the book is all about.

The plot and the fiction part of it is no doubt excellent and I never thought I would love it this much. What I liked the best is the way the book is written - the language, style, the sarcastic sense of humor which is intellectual and verbal rather than slapstick and cliched. Some of the lines from this book have become popular catchphrases...I never understood them till now, when people use to refer to it....things like "42!" which is the answer to every question or a simple phrase like 'Dont Panic!' (read the book and u will know what it is! :-) )

Lines from the book-

Ford stood up. "We're safe," he said.
"Oh good," said Arthur.
"We're in a small galley cabin," said Ford, "in one of the spaceships of the Vogon Constructor Fleet."
"Ah," said Arthur, "this is obviously some strange usage of the word safe that I wasn't previously aware of."

I am waiting to read the next few books in the series.. As soon as am done with my last book for the OT challenge am planning to pick this up!

For those of you who love sci-fi - if you haven't read this you are definitely missing something really good! and those of you who have never tried reading sci-fi or think that you might hate it (just like i did) - this is a real treat!!! Try reading the first book and am sure you will enjoy it as much as I did! Once you do, dont forget to leave me a comment and thank me for recommending ;-)

The New Look

Finally managed to get the tabbed look for this blog!!
Took hell lot of an effort to edit the HTML code... but happy with the final outcome :)