The White Tiger

   Aravind Adiga

The Fourth Night

The Novel, “The White Tiger” is written by an Indian writer Aravind Adiga.The entire novel is narrated through letters by Balram Halwai to the Premier of China Mr.Wen Jiabao, who will soon be visiting India. This is a story of an Indian man from poor background and his transcended experience from impoverished background to a successful entrepreneur in Bangalore.

This particular piece of writing deals with the second half of The Fourth Night in “The White Tiger”. It‘s a first time that Balram receives his wages three thousand rupees from Mr.Ashok, his owner. He doesn’t have the habit of drinking liquor , it’s a first time since his birth takes the cheapest kind of liquor from “Action “English Liquor Shop –India Made Foreign Liquor sold Here. He is not able to get up in the morning. Mentioning the ‘Halwai ‘class Pinky madam asks him to prepare tea for her because she has headache. Balram disgusts pinky by scratching his groin with his left hand while making her tea with his right. He is criticized severely for his Paan-stained teeth and uncivilized mannerism. The next day, she and Ashok, who has been fighting, mock Balram for his inability to pronounce the word ‘Mall’.Being a poor man who has a desire for things which the rich people use, he tries to enter the mall but refused by the chauffeurs because of wearing sandals, a mark of the low-class people. He feels that he is not even accepted as a human in the rich society.

Balram notices Mr. Ashok who always wears a plain T-shirt with a small design in the centre. That night he buys a similar T-shirt in the market and a pair of shoes as well as a toothpaste which removes the stain of redness in his teeth. The next morning after dropping his master he changes his dress and wears clothes he has bought and enters by the back door. Before his master reaches he changes back into his uniform.

Mr.Ashok  always keeps her wife happy despite having some problem in their married life.On Pinky madam’s birthday, Ashok commands Balram to dress up in a maharaja costume and serve them ‘pizza’. They mock him for his inability to pronounce the word ‘pizza’ although Balram notes Pinky madam mispronounced it as well. That evening, Balram drives them into the city and waits for them outside in the freezing cold.The other drives stay warm by burning cellophane bags. After Balram declines Vitiligo-Lips's invites to join them, the other drivers mock Balram for being a snob and for wearing the maharaja costume.

On the way home, Pinky Madam demands to drive the car, but Ashok protests. When a child approached the car selling a large statue of Buddha, Balram looks closely at it, and Pinky Madam mockingly called him a connoisseur of fine art. She then demands Balram getting out of the car, insisting he must spend the night out on the road with the Buddha. Pinky Madam drove the car away, leaving Balram alone. Soon enough, she makes a U-turn and comes back for him.

she keeps driving, speeding recklessly, until she runs over a child in the road, killing him or her. Balram quickly retakes the driver's seat and them back to their building. After leaving them upstairs, he scrubbers the car thoroughly, removing all traces of blood and flesh from its surface.

While he is cleaning the car, Mr. Ashok joins him. He comforts himself by reflecting that the child was likely homeless and it would not be missed. Balram reassures him as well, and then, feeling he has respectfully performed his duty, goes to sleep.

The next morning, the Mongoose arrives in Delhi. Balram is called upstairs, to find only the Mongoose and a lawyer waiting for him. Mr. Ashok and Pinky Madam are in their rooms. The Mongoose greets Balram with uncharacteristic warmth and pressured him to take some paan. The lawyer then gives Balram a paper to sign. It is a confession; they want Balram to take full responsibility for the hit-and-run. The Mongoose informs Balram that he has already explained the situation to the servant's family and that Kusum has agreed to serve as the witness to the document.

Balram concludes this section of his narrative seething with violent rage. He expresses disgust with the circumstances in India, where servants are frequently framed for the crimes of their masters, and the servants' families are so deluded that they actually brag that their boy has been so "loyal".

                by          

J. Anto Rathna Rose