Chand pe jayenge!!

So finally Indians are sending a mission to moon “Chandrayaan”. I hope it reaches moon without any hiccups, it will be a brilliant scientific achievement. These kinds of events also add to excitement towards pure science- an area that is neglected, as also towards Astronomy. Aerospace is another stream of study that is very interesting.

The White Tiger

Generally one shouldn’t be reading a book just because it has won an award, but then Booker Prize is not an ordinary award, and then the book is written by Indian and the story is based in India. These are sufficient reason to buy the book. First I went to all pavement sellers around and they said pirated version has not come out cursing I went to a book stall and had to shell out 400/- (don’t know why they put it as 395/-, why not 399/- like Bata shoes!!). White Tiger is a different kind of book, quite innovative and very contemporary. It is in form of letters written by an “entrepreneur” to visiting Chinese premier. It is a brutally frank book about the elites of Indian society “the people of light” from the perspective of person “from darkness”. The whole premise is very interesting. I liked many parts in the book like for instance the exchange between puddle of spits!!. Also the prescription of good driver in cities “you need to have aggression in your blood”!!.

This blogger has been a pedestrian in Delhi roads for nearly ten years and so can associate with what Arvind Adiga is trying to bring out. Incidentally few hours before the “famous” BMW hit and run I was very much on that road. One reason I don’t go out late night is that it is dangerous, it is the time when people in Delhi become animals. They drive reckless and fast, and then you could also easily be mugged up. It has happened to many people whom I knew (in one case the fellow was dumped in Duala kuan for dead and spend many hours lying unconscious, in the morning a passerby notified the cops. He spent months in hospital to recover). This blogger has been lucky to have escaped with few cuts and some deep gashes, nothing serious. Also 10-11pm there are few to no buses, and auto asks for many times the actual fare. Being a pedestrian in Delhi is one of the most dangerous occupations, recently though I have upgraded to two-wheeler, it is my turn to curse the pedestrians!!! (just kidding I am quite calm while driving, I enjoy the chaos!!. It is difficult to be angry in the traffic since the situation is funnier. Also this blogger is never in a hurry. Flip side though is one tends to get wheezing). Despite heavy traffic Bangaloreans are not that bad on road, I found that in Mumbai vehicles stick to their lanes which is a miracle!!. Cars also have become quite sophisticated, recently I traveled on Mumbai-Pune highway in Indica, it was such a smooth drive- almost like flying.

I took two whole days to finish the book, the best part of the book is that I didn’t have to take up the dictionary even once!!. Another reason for liking this book was all the places mentioned in the book are known to me and the situations very plausible. That also creates a problem since people don’t use English, but then when you are writing in English you don’t have any other option. So characters have to speak in English!! (I recall a decade back when I was drafting this Short Story “Beginning at the end” there is a letter from a village that I had to add and I wrote atleast ten times to get the feel even then I thought it lost the essence in English!!). It is sometimes difficult for the reader like me to juxtapose these opposing realities. I had to translate into Hindi in my mind and then imagine the situation. Despite these- which any English writer will face, this is a brave attempt that doesn’t play with clichés to impress West. I recommend the book for its dark humor, it is worth the money and yes richly deserves the award.