The White Tiger
                                                                     -Aravind Adiga
 Aravind Adiga was born in 1974 in Madras, and grew up in Mangalore in the South of India.  He was educated at Columbia University in New York and Magdalena College, Oxford.  His articles have appeared in publications such as `The New Yorker`, `The Sunday Times`, ‘The Financial Times’, and ‘The Times of India’.  His first novel was ``The White Tiger``, won the man booker prize for fiction in 2008.  The second novel was ‘Last Mant in Tower’ , was published in 2011.
The novel provides a darkly humorous perspective of India`s class struggle in a globalized world as told though a retrospective narration from Balram`s Halwai, a village boy.  In detailing Balram`s journey first to Delhi, where he works as a chauffeur  to a rich landlord, and then to Bangalore, the place to which he flues after killing his master and stealing his money the novel examines issues of religion, caste , loyalty, corruption and poverty in India. 
The Fourth Night
The entire novel is narrated through letters by Balram Halwai to the Premier of China, who will soon be visiting India. The fourth Night chapter opens as Balram expresses his closeness with Chandelier.  He has two chandeliers in his apartment; it makes Balram happy he was not able to understand the people, who refused to buy the chandelier.  He mentions that “Free people don`t know the value of freedom that’s the problem”.  Balram then describes about Delhi the capital of our glorious nation. Delhi is a crazy city; where the rich people live in big housing colonies. Their houses have numbers and letters. Every road has a name and no one  knows the name of the road.  All the roads look the same in Delhi, so people easily get lost in Delhi.   Many people from the darkness simply live on the roadsides.  These homeless people are a particular problem for drivers. Balram drives Mongoose and Mr. Ashok around the city as they discuss the negotiations between the Break socialist and the stork and then about Mr. Ashok’s decision on staying India.
Like Pinky Madam, the Mongoose also insult Balram for his driving skills, but Mr. Ashok defends him. Balram explains that drivers are not allowed in the malls and so they wait outside the complex, on one such another day a driver began to talk to Balram, calling him a ”country-Mouse”.  Balram refers to him as Vitiligo-Lips, since his lips are affected by  vitiligo, a common disease amongst Indian poors.  It causes one`s skin colour to change from brown to pink which gives Vitiligo-Lips a grotesque, clown-like appearance. Vitiligo-lips, is also from the darkness. He advices Balraam advice about surviving in Delhi, the corruption among the police, and the hard-partying lifestyles that most masters live, thereby making life difficult for servants. He explain that servants like to read magazines like ‘Murder weekly’.  During the conversation with vitiligo-lips, Balram plays the part of a loyal servant, refusing to disclose any information about his Masters.
After returning from mall, Balram drives them back to the new home, which is up on the thirteenth floor Buckingham Towers B Block.  In the new apartment, Balram live in the servants quarters in basement along with all the other servants which include drivers, cooks, sweepers, maids, and chefs of the apartment. The servants hear an electric bell when the master needs his servant. The other servant relentlessly tease Balram, mocking his country’s foolishness and his uniform, which he consider a point of pride and they even called him a “village idiot”.  Eventually, Balram moves into an unpleasant empty room on the other side of the quarters.  He valued the privacy it afforded, and hid himself inside a mosquito net to shield himself form the cockroaches at night.
Every morning, Balram cleanes the car, and waits until his services are needed. One morning, he drives Mongoose and Mr. Ashok to the congress party headquarters, another day he drives the bothers to the President`s House.
After getting home, the Mongoose discovers that he has lost a rupee. He cruelly forces Balram to check the car, until Balram finally drops one of his own rupees and pretends to discovered it. The next morning, Mr.Ashok informs Balram that the Mangoose is leaving the city by train.  On their way to the station, Mongoose expresses his distrust of Balram, and warns him to follow the rules. Mr.Ashok  again defends Balram’s trustworthiness.
               By
         Anisha S

CHARACTER SKETCH OF VIRMATI IN             “DIFFICULT DAUGHTERS.”
The novel presents the daughters of three generations : Kasturi, Virmati and Ida. The novel begins with Virmati’s funeral. The story of Virmati is narrated by Ida, Virmati’s daughter. The background is India’s Independence struggle. Also Virmati’s fight against the family traditions, age old orthodox and the society. She is an educated young woman of Punjabi middle class family. She always longed for the parental love. As she is the eldest child she often feels neglected. She is like a second mother to her siblings and took all the responsibilities. Her longing for love directed her to an illegal affair with HarishChandra, a married professor. She is a rebellious character as she refused to marry at a young age neglecting her family traditions. She even attempts suicide but was saved. She goes for her desires such as having higher education and marrying Harish. She is the character who follows the heart. She is caught  between family duty and personal desires. She gives preference to her personal desires. She continues her education in Lahore, Harish follows her and she falls prey to the professor’s emotional trap. In the conflict between mind and body, the body always wins. Being an intellectual she was unable to control herself. She desires for freedom. After an abortion, she finally marries Harish but finds herself suppressed by him. When she is in her home, she desires to come out of the family responsibilities. After marriage, she desires to be free from Harish. She acquires the status of mother and wife, but never feels the belongingness. She is a persistent character and never gave up. She attempts to find her identity. After marriage, unconsciously loses her identity. Her name suggests that she is not only brave but also stubborn. Ida did not want to live Virmati’s life. Ida resembles Virmati. Ida is a childless divorcee. Virmati is compared to the character Tess. She is filled with ignorance and victimization.

                           
                                SUBMITTED BY
                                R. S. LAKSIKA,
                               1MA ENGLISH. 

AROCKIA ANNES

THE WHITE TIGER

-ARAVIND ADIGA

                                                     SIXTH MORNING

In this chapter Balram asks apology for his sudden departure. He explains that he was away because of serious incident in which a man lost his life .He also says that he is not responsible for the death. Balram turns his chandelier and continues telling the Premier his story  explaining  about the corruption. He says that since his master is corrupted he is also corrupted. After  the Mongoose returned to  Dhanbad . Mr.Ashok began to dress differently .One night Mr.Ashok and Balram  went to a discotheque at a mall and then to the Sheraton hotel .At one point Mr.Ashok and Balram were lustily admiring a women walking by and their eyes met in the rearview mirror. Both were ashamed feeling as though they shared a body. Finally  they reached the Sheraton Hotel. While waiting outside the hotel  Balram chatted with his friend Vitiligo-Lips. Balram asked to Vitiligo-Lips that will his future will be like as a driver. Vitiligo-Lips answered that Balram would save enough money to buy a small house in the slum and sent his child to                                    the university. After a while, Mr.Ashok left the hotel with Ms.Uma a woman whom  Balram identified as a Nepali . Mr.Ashok was holding Ms.Uma around her waist. Then they went to PVR saket a cinema complex. In PVR saket ten to twelve movies will at the same time and charges over a hundred and fifty rupees per movie. Big business men only go to PVR saket. Meanwhile Balram went to the “Second PVR”. There he bought some food and acted condescendingly towards a knife grinder who approached him while he ate. He insulted the man, using an insult Mr.Ashok once directed at him “How stupid can you people get? After eating , Balram  approached a man selling books written in English. Though the man did not know the language, he distinguished the books by their cover. Balram loves to read book Balram left knowing that he should pick up Mr.Ashok and Ms.Uma. while they were driving home ,Mr.Ashok and Ms.Uma canoodled in the backseat. Balram grew indignant to observe this given that Ashok was still legally married. The next morning went to Mr.Ashoks room. He eavesdropped on a conversation between his master and Uma . Ms.Uma is the lover of Mr.Ashok  meanwhile Ashok received a phonecall from his family in Dhanbad instructing him to bribe another minister. He expressed his discomfort with such dealings to Ms.Uma, who encouraged him to leave the family business and find a new line of work. He countered that the situation was more complicated Mr.Ashok  asked Balram to drive Ms.Uma home but she was not willing to go with him, worrying that village men like Balram consider unmarried women like her to be whores. She further worried that he would think her as a Nepali because of her appearance . Mr.Ashok insisted that Balram was part of the family. But she couldn’t accept that Balram overheard the entire conversation. That evening Balram drove Mr.Ashok to the ministers house stopping at several ATM’s long the way so that Ashok could make withdrawals for the bribe. Balram entirely understood the nature of Ashok duties in Delhi. At the ministers house, the ministers assistant and Ashok exited together , and the formor insisted they go out of the town. Balram eave dropped on their conversation which was about the coal business, Ashok impending divorce and the volatile political situation in India. Ministers assistant offered to buy Ashok a prostitute but Ashok refused, explaining that he is seeing someone .He says that Ashok is corrupted since he is in Delhi. The ministers assistant directed Balram to a brothel where they picked up  a tall, beautiful blonde prostitute from the Ukraine. She looked like Kim Basinger. They went to the Sheraton hotel. After an hour Ashok left the hotel and Balram drove him Home. Balram found the hair of the lady in the seat and he ends the chapter by saying that the brown hair is on his table.

Submitted by

C.B. Aathira

I M.A. ENG

The White Tiger

-         Aravind Adiga

Chapter 1:

The First Night

          The White Tiger is in the form of a series of letters. The letters are written by Balram Halwai, an Indian citizen to Wen Jiabao, the premier of the slate council of the People’s Republic of china. In the letters, he describes the reality of India through his life story, his experiences and struggles on his way towards liberation. He discusses the changes in his life as he moves from Laxmangarh to Delhi and Bangalore. His life history is an evidence for India changing value systems which has paved way for the political corruption, theft, lack of morality, hunger for money and other such evils.

          Balram represents the two sides of India, the dark and the light. Through he is born and bred in darkness, he marches towards light through his life experiences.In the novel where both the village and the city are picturised we find the character like Balram, Vikram, Kishan represents lower class. In the city, the masters, the stork, Ashok, Moukesh rule the poor servants like Balram and Ram Prasad, the driver.

          Indian entrepreneur Balram Halwai (alias Ashok Sharma), the novel’s narrator and protagonist, begins composing a letter to Chinese official Wen Jiabao, who is visiting India on diplomacy. Balram expresses his excitement as a local businessman that Jiabao wants to understand the culture of Indian entrepreneurship, and claims that his life story is all Jaibao needs to hear in order to learn “the truth about India”. He warns Jaibao not to believe what politicians tell him, and not to buy the bootlegged American business books that children sell in the street.

          To set scene for Jaibao, Balram describes the luxurious Bangalore office from which he writes, and explains that he will stay up all night to tell his story. This is no great hardship considering that all successful entrepreneurs must watch over their businesses night and day. He honors the Indian tradition of praying to the Gods before beginning a story, an act that he irreverently refers to as “Kissing the Gods’ arises,” before starting his narrative.

          Balram refers to himself as a “half- baked Indian” because he is prevented from completing his formal education as a child. However, he claims that this lack of schooling is not necessarily a disadvantage, and that all Indian entrepreneurs are similarly “half- baked”. “Fully formed” Indians, on the other hand, go on to work in companies and have no entrepreneurial spirit.

          To describe his physical appearance and basic biographical details, Balram references a police details, Balram references a police poster that is issued for his arrest three years ago after an even that he describes as “an act of entrepreneurship”. He mocks the hazy, incomplete police report and fills in the missing information as he goes along. He particularly notes his outward transformation from the unfed peasant in the poster to the pudgy businessman he is today. He also mentions that as a child, he is simply called as “Munna” or “boy”, until a school teacher assigned him the god Krishna’s sidekick.

Balram goes on to describe his native village of Laxmangarh, in the poor, rural “India of Darkness”, in contrast to his current city of Bangalore, which he says is part of the urban, prosperous “India of Light”, Laxmangarh sits on the banks of the sacred Ganges River, where religious Hindus have cremated their dead for centuries and where Balram’s own mother was cremated when he was a young boy. He describes the traumatic experience of her funeral, how he was frightened not so much by the cremation but by the black river mud that sucked his mother’s ashes into its depths. Watching her sink into the earth, Balram faints from an over whelming sense of oppression and futility. Despite its importance as a sacred site, he never returns.

Through his youth Balram is surrounded by poverty, disease, and malnutrition. His destitute family lives at the mercy of four cruel and exploitative land lords referred to collectively as “the Animals”, individually as The Water Buffalo, The Raven, The Stork and The Wild Boar. The Animals “feed” on the town, harassing women and taxing the villagers at every opportunity”.

          Balram’s father Vikram Halwai scrapes together a living as a rickshaw driver. His one ambition is to see his son complete his education and “live like a man”. Balaram’s only understanding of what this might mean is based on his awe for Vijay the Bus Driver, who began as a pig farmer’s son but somehow works his way to a stable job, not to mention a fancy uniform and shiny silver whistle that all the young boys admire. Rumor has it that Vijay got his jobs in exchange for having sex with a politician, but this does not trouble Balram.

Balram’s school though underfunded and run by a corrupt teacher who steals funds because he himself has not been paid for months, is a place where he excels. He recounts a pivotal moment in his life when a visiting school inspector singles him out for his academic promise and integrity. The man calls Balram a “White Tiger”, the rarest and most noble animal in the jungle, and promises him a scholarship. Balaram, used to live a life of hardship in the Darkness, knows that this promise is too good to come true.

His intuition proves correct. Balram’s grandmother Kusum takes out a loan from the Stork, one of the four village landlords, to pay for a relative’s wedding. The Stork orders that Balram be taken out of school to work alongside the rest of his family and pay back the debit. Balram goes to work with his brother Krishna in the village teashop. Though this is a devastating turn of fate, Balram claims that his entrepreneurial spirit allows him to take matters into his own hands, to turn this bad news into good news.

Balram ends this first installment of his story with a memory of the Black Fort: the only thing of beauty in his impoverished town. The fort is a grand old building on a hill above town, constructed by foreign occupier’s years ago, which both fascinated and frightened Balram throughout his youth. He claims that his ability to appreciate its beauty marked him early on as different from his fellow villagers, destined not to remain a slave. When he returns to the village years later with his wealthy master Mr. Ashok and his mistress Pinky Madam, he finally gets the courage to visit the fort alone. He looks out over the village from on high and spits. Eight months later, he reveals, he slits the throat of Mr. Ashok.

DIFFICULT DAUGHTERS

Psychological views of DIFFICULT DAUGHTERS.

Manju Kapur wrote this novel to highlight the pathetic plight of modern women. It deals with the changes in the customs of generation gap, search for identity and the conflict between traditional life and westernization. Analyzing the novel in a psychological aspect, the protagonist of the novel Virmati is taken into account, as the story line revolves round her. The plot opens with the funeral ceremony of Virmati which is attended by her daughter Ida. With a peculiar statement “I do not want to be like my mother.”

Ida starts searching for her own ancestral root and thus she moves to her mother’s home town, enquiring Virmati’s brothers and sisters about her childhood days. Ida comes to know that Virmati belongs to a traditional Punjabi family that led a typical village life. She is the eldest of the eleven children of Kasturi. Due to successive pregnancies, Kasturi was not able to take care of all the children. Hence, the motherly responsibility came over the eldest daughter Virmati and she had to take care of all the younger siblings. When Virmati looked pitifully at her mother Kasturi embracing the new borns, Kasturi asks Virmati to take care of the children and asked her to guide the younger ones to eat and to take bath.

Thus Virmati never cherished the love and care of her mother and she longed for the familial love. Virmati had the desire to continue her studies, but due to the illness of her mother, her father did not allow her to persuade her higher education, although he was affectionate. Virmati had to do all the duties of her mother, but still there was no way to fulfill her passion. Her affectionate father also did not allow her to take her own decisions regarding her future studies. So, she was inspired by her cousin Shakuntala as she was leading a carefree life according to her own notions. In the mean time, Virmati felt inferior to Shakuntala, as she was westernized and working in a college. As a rebellious woman Shakuntala had her own freedom to get married or not-these factors developed an inferiority complex within Virmati.

Her longing for familial love and care and also a strong desire to persuade her studies led her to take a wrong decision in falling in love with a married English professor Harish, who worked in Oxford. He had a daughter and a caring wife, but now he is living with his mother and sister. At present, he is working in the college where Virmati is admitted. Harish is attracted by Virmati for her beauty and the keen eyes that show her eagerness for education. She is the only female student and the sharing of books brought a bond between Harish and Virmati. As a traditional family, Virmati’s mother planned to get her married, but she was not interested in marriage.

As she was in love with another man, she decided to commit suicide, which became a great blame and brought a bad name for kasturi’s family. So Kasturi punished her by locking her in a gallery, where the family stored the necessities. It had a great impact on Virmati’s psyche, that already she was lacking the necessary love and guidance from her family side. This leads her further to indulge in continuing the misdeed of transacting letters to Harish, with the help of her sister. She needed someone to chat with her and to express her thoughts, but her mother did not understand her feelings. If they had talked to her and understood her inner feelings, she might have come out of the pit that she was trapped in. In due course of time, she comes to know that Harish’s wife had delivered a second child. This makes her to think wisely and she then decided to leave Harish and forget the memories. So she plans to educate herself in the college, where her cousin Shakuntala was working.

But Harish was not willing to leave her and he continued to follow her, to fulfill his own self-desires. He even made her conceive once with the help of a friend, she then aborted it with the help of her roommate Swarnalata. She could not even roam freely in the society and due to such frustrations, Virmati decided to be a second wife of Harish, not even analyzing the tyrannies of being a second wife. There only she came to know the real face of Harish. Even a normal woman has certain dreams about her married life and some expectations from the side of her husband’s family. In the case of Virmati, she would have more expectations, as she missed the love expected in her childhood days. But it is totally upside down in her new family, Harish’s first wife not even allowed her to enter the kitchen to cook for Harish, did not allow her to wash his clothes and even allow to polish his shoes.

            Due to these oppressions, she uttered the words “And- what? As your wife, am I to do nothing for you? Just be in your bed?”(p.no.217).As a newly wedded woman, all her dreams and expectations were shattered. Her days became long and empty. Virmati comes to understand the real nature of Harish both before and during love. Her situation becomes frustrating worse, as she felt marginalized. When she went to attend her father’s funeral, her mother did not even wanted to look at the face of Virmati. The thought of being unwanted at all levels has been like a psychological shock for her. This emotional deprivation led to cause quietness, loss of interest in life and psychosomatic illness in her.

The nature of Virmati at the beginning of the novel is presented as simple and innocent. It is even said that she could not understand the subtle designs underlying the professor’s looks and talks. As there is no one to teach her about the good touch and bad touch, which should be given as an awareness to the children from the side of the parents. Thus the psychology of a person depends upon the bringing up and the childhood background.

Submitted By,

J. Mery Joylin Treasa,

1^st M.A English Literature.

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

POVERTY AND INJUSTICE IN ARAVIND ADIGA'S "THE WHITE TIGER"

Poverty and Injustice in Aravind Adiga’s The White Tiger

            

           Aravind Adiga’s debut novel, The White Tiger opens “a Pandora’s box unleashing ugliness, beauty, misery and brilliance” says a reviewer. It “shines a light on India’s vast area of darkness” and has been called “an amazing and angry novel about injustice and power” by USA Today. Adiga’s narrative highlights the contrast between India’s rise as a modern global economy and crushing poverty in rural India. The novel conveys the lives of India’s poor in a realistic and sympathetic manner.

            To describe the conditions of poor people Adiga uses a strange general term “the darkness.” The term “darkness” represents the villages in India. Laxmangarh, Balram’s native village has no electricity, sewage, sanitation, communication or healthcare. The villagers suffer because of poverty and they cannot fulfill their dreams. Balram Halwai the protagonist of the novel leaves the school because he has to work in a tea shop to refund the loan from the Stork. Vikram Halwai, father of the protagonist is a rickshaw puller and died of Tuberculosis without treatment in the government hospital.

            India’s economic growth is continuously increasing and equivalent to America. But the condition of the poor remains the same. The wages for the poor people like servants, drivers and cooks has only been increased marginally. Adiga in the words of Balram compares the plight of poor to chickens living in a rooster coop in the poultry market. They blindly bind themselves in the trap of servitude. Adiga also describes the problem of poor people in the present scenario by giving example of usage of cell phones. Speaking of the basic necessity of water Balram says, “There is no water in our taps, and what do you people in Delhi give us? You give us cell phones.”

            India is the world’s greatest democratic country, yet the poor people are in their same condition. They don’t have freedom or power to do anything. They have very little political freedom. Adiga gives a true picture about election period and political power of poor Indians and the failure of India’s election system. Justice one of the important forces of a democratic country is offered only to the rich people. The drivers hired by the rich are treated like servants and forced to do works like cooking, cleaning, etc. The drivers are not allowed to enter the big Malls and it is reported in newspaper as “Is There No Space for the Poor in the Malls of New Delhi.”

            When some accidents take place because of the masters, the drivers are victimised. In the case of Balram, he was victimised for the accident caused by Pinky madam. It shows the servity of injustice labored on the destitute. Balram was humiliated by all his masters; he wants to take revenge that leads to murder. He wants to come out the rooster coop. so he kills his own master to become rich. Poverty creates the monster Balram. He is also a representation of the poor in India longing for ‘tomorrow.’ This story is an allegory of the new India with a distinctly chilling twist. He is not only an entrepreneur but also a criminal remarkably capable of self-justification.

ASLIN JUDIT.V, Reg.no: 170460.