The White Tiger

Did I actually read The White Tiger  before pronouncing the Booker “undeserving”? No I did not. which is why I attributed “undeserving” to common consensus rather than to myself. I had gone by the views of reviewers I trust,  such as Chandrahas Choudhury.  

But I am happy to report that since then, I have, as a service to my readers, read that novel. This surprising turn of events came about as a result of a series of coincidences. I visited Mumbai, and there I found that my brother was in possession of a pirated copy of the book. The horrors of a long-distance flight on Northwest airlines lay ahead of me, and I wanted a book that I could finish by the time I reached Amsterdam. I asked my brother if I could borrow it. He was only too happy to lend it. I started reading it at the airport and finished it somewhere over Asia Minor. Yes the novel is utter crap and Aravind Adiga is an incompetent writer.  

Continue reading

Get in Line Along With Everyone Else

OK, Aravind Adiga, author of The White Tiger, which, to go by common consensus, seems to have won an undeserved Booker, has said:

So, where’s this Shining India everyone’s talking about? It was time someone broke the myth…

The last time I checked, there is a huge queue of people waiting to bust the myth of Shining India and collect their publisher’s advance. Why does every single one of them feel the need to pretend that he is the first one to bust the myth?