Betrayals !

Whether it's because of fate's design or my own error of judgement, I cannot still decide.  But in the last one week, out of the four books I read (read bought n read!), 3 were disasters and the fourth was tolerable.  Yesterday and today, I had been wasting time on Chetan Bhagat's "3 Mistakes of my life" and Arvind Adiga's "The White Tiger".. While I had no expectations from Chetan Bhagat, I expected the Booker winner "The White Tiger" to be a treat.. Especially when it is a self proclaimed dark comedy, my kind really..

White Tiger is a real page turner..no doubt. But I guess one keeps turning pages in vain, to find something which strikes a chord.. in search of something which makes sense to the reader. Tough luck there though !! What starts as a lower class servant's rants continues throughout the book, trying to deride India for everything it has either changed or is in the process of changing. The protagonist coming from Bihar calling it the darkness is understandable.. But thats where the connect ends. What do you make out when a driver gets enchanted by the life his employer leads and decides to mudrder him and better yet, justifies it throughout the book ?? Set in a first person, we cannot but look at everything from Balram's viewpoint but even then we don't get convinced that there is a real motive for the murder. Having portrayed the master as an exceptionally kind and friendly being, Adiga does not even give us the benefit of doubt that probably the ill treatment has blown off Balram's fuse. A man's ambition to go ahead in life is commendable, more so when he is from a so called suppressed class of India. But by creating a character who is so out of reality, by not having any emotion (except for being horny), or any true relationship(family or friends), the character remains directionless throughout. All he wants to do is become free from his slavery and the means is of little consequence to Adiga.

More enraging is the false protrayal of India to the world. Where the heck do we still have malls where men without shoes or T shirt are not allowed to enter? Or which village has bonded labour these days forcing children to skip school and work?? And do we ask somebody with a surname Halwai,"Are you not from the caste which makes sweets?? What are doing here as a driver?". I mean, it so set in the past.. Yet the same India is shown to have Sahara Mall in Gurgaon. 

Common baths, Common sinks etc are a way of life in India. It does not apply just to the a driver from the Darkness. . So many young men and women in India live in hostels far awya from home sharing everything from baths to clothes with strangers.. Adiga makes too much out of these everywhere.,. Obviously India cannot provide a duplex apartment to a school drop out from Bihar.. I doubt if America can too. Balram has reasons enough to count his blessings and has not a single valid reason for contemplating the murder of his master for a second. Yet that is what he does.. Calling himself the White tiger, an animal born only once in a generation it seems..As much as I have read, White tigers are results of genetic mutation and has nothing special to its credit.. We have white cockroaches too in fact.

Predictably, the dark side of Delhi is explored completely.. And all the while you keep wondering what makes him overlook everything that is good about India and falsely claim  a lot of things which stand out due to their artificiality. May be because everone is so overwhlemed by the Indian growth story and to be heard over the crowd you need to shout something which is different. And so the inexperienced and ignorant Adiga chooses to bring down India's image with falsity and exaggeration.

And when I came to know that it had won the Booker, I had a moment of self doubt where I thought that my verdict has gone awry.. But internet told me that almost all the Indian critics have lambasted the book and almost all the white critics have found it very exceptional (balm to their white ego).. Check out the links for polarised views and you would know what I mean.

http://www.hindu.com/lr/2008/11/02/stories/2008110250010100.htm   and

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/09/books/review/Kapur-t.html?_r=2&oref=slogin

When I was opening the book , " 3 Mistakes of my life",  I was sure I was making a mistake too.. His books are better left for times when you are travelling in a crowded bus with an annoying uncle asking you about why you are working out of Tamilnadu when there are so many software companies in Chennai or why you studied in Jaipur when TN has 236 engineering colleges. But being the loser I am, I had no company but this book 2 days back.   I challenge you to find a single Indian parent, who after reading this book would let his/her daughter go to tutitions peacefully. Hitting on a professor's daughter, hitting on a student/best friend's sister.. I dont know what would come next in Bhagat's novel..hitting on ur own daughter??  I don't know what makes him stoop so  low?? Does being the most widely read English author in the country makes him dilute the content for the masses? Or is it the lack of the content itself? India's own Mills and Boon is how he can market himself successfully. A new pair, but the same old mindless love stories under the guise of something new everytime.. It is entrepreneuship this time!!! 

The book is a collection of all the incidents which shook Gujarat in 2000 - 2001. The Bhuj earthquake, the Godhra carnage everything has been brought in to lend credibilty to the narration.. which unfortunately does not happen. The story is so hollow and so pea brained. A kid in a story writing contest might come up with a story like this.. Yeah, but for the censored parts he is becoming the face of... We expect more from an IIT IIM grad.

The third was something the shop keeper shovelled into my throat. Some debut writer about IIT life (not one more plz!). It s called "Anything for you ma'm". The lesser said about it, the better. Someone aspires to be like Chetan Bhagat too :P !!

The fourth is by my favorite author Mary Higgins Clark.  "You Belong to Me". A good thriller .. Only that I guessed the killer right after he was introduced to the reader and I kept turning pages in vain hope that she would somehow twist the story and my guess would be incorrect. Alas! What pleasure reading a suspense novel when you know who the serial killer is !! t least I expected better motive for the killings but she let me down there too.. Pretty lame ending.But stands out compared to the remaining three.

So Shantaram and Sea of Poppies are waiting to be read.They won't disappoint me for sure ! The only book I have enjoyed in the last three weeks is Stephenie Meyers' Twilight . A dracula love story. Quite a page turner. And quite dark too. But the second part is so badly written. You's think the dracula himself was forcing the author to come down with the sequel. But wisely I did not buy it but managed to download the  ebook!

My gambles have gone horribly wrong. Hope its the time for pay off :) !