Writing about Indian authors is not only incomplete, but lacks a good start, if not started with Arvind Adiga. The white Tiger was one of the loveliest reading experience I ever had. Right from the first word what ensued was a bold and frank no-nonsense fiction that was very real though dark. I have read several reviews that criticized the work as being too much of India bashing, to just reap the Booker. My humble opinion is that it was well written, perfect, and brought out the chilly dark side to India rather than the sweet cultural hegemony and integrity brought out in most Indian fiction that sound like Indian youth have just one problem Love, and marrying his beau is what constitute his younger days.
Most people in my circle and the ones I meet are sure to drop ‘Two States’ the moment they hear that I love reading. Did I like Two States? I don’t want to demean it, but that story is not something unusual, it is there in every Indian movie. I was actually irritated on how every character is just a stereotype, I don’t know if it is a North Indian syndrome, where all north east or south Indian people look and behave the same; add to it the detailing on all south Indian females not waxing their arms. How on every page I was like... stop it these things don’t happen in places other than your imagination. There are more real people with real issues, daily ones.
Compare it with Adiga, who in the very beginning warns what you can actually expect. The threat, the warning, it actually kept me interested, moving every page cherishing every single word. I even wondered half way, what sort of a woman I am that relishes and cheers reading such dark writing. But the truth is I really enjoyed the real portrayal of this country. Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry also brings out the darkness of the Emergency period and its impact on the real people, but with a little subtlety, while Adiga simply doesn’t seem to care.
I was so much in love with Adiga’s style that I went on to check out his Last man in Tower, which was one shade less dark. While Balram Halwai was a male from the lowest strata of Indian society, the characters from the Vishram Society are middle class, who are often portrayed as goodies, portrayed in the darkest hues. Can such people exist in real...? Never did this question come into my mind, since at some point of life most of us have seen these people exist near us, travelling by the same transport, going to the same shop, movies or office, staying next door.
But the pace was a bit relaxed, such a long story and the punch was just missing. The novel set me thinking, wandering between pages, how sick, creepy and deadly the human mind is. Between the assassinations did not go well with me. It neither looked like a collection of short stories, nor a novella. Some of the stories felt wanting a climax, while the same stories featured in some other story of the same collection, very disjoint and yet joint. Whatever the style, it did not go well with me. But then no news of any further work from him has been announced. I happened to read a few write-ups by him which were once again needless to say full of style, very much looking forward to reading more from him.
Most people in my circle and the ones I meet are sure to drop ‘Two States’ the moment they hear that I love reading. Did I like Two States? I don’t want to demean it, but that story is not something unusual, it is there in every Indian movie. I was actually irritated on how every character is just a stereotype, I don’t know if it is a North Indian syndrome, where all north east or south Indian people look and behave the same; add to it the detailing on all south Indian females not waxing their arms. How on every page I was like... stop it these things don’t happen in places other than your imagination. There are more real people with real issues, daily ones.
Compare it with Adiga, who in the very beginning warns what you can actually expect. The threat, the warning, it actually kept me interested, moving every page cherishing every single word. I even wondered half way, what sort of a woman I am that relishes and cheers reading such dark writing. But the truth is I really enjoyed the real portrayal of this country. Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry also brings out the darkness of the Emergency period and its impact on the real people, but with a little subtlety, while Adiga simply doesn’t seem to care.
I was so much in love with Adiga’s style that I went on to check out his Last man in Tower, which was one shade less dark. While Balram Halwai was a male from the lowest strata of Indian society, the characters from the Vishram Society are middle class, who are often portrayed as goodies, portrayed in the darkest hues. Can such people exist in real...? Never did this question come into my mind, since at some point of life most of us have seen these people exist near us, travelling by the same transport, going to the same shop, movies or office, staying next door.
But the pace was a bit relaxed, such a long story and the punch was just missing. The novel set me thinking, wandering between pages, how sick, creepy and deadly the human mind is. Between the assassinations did not go well with me. It neither looked like a collection of short stories, nor a novella. Some of the stories felt wanting a climax, while the same stories featured in some other story of the same collection, very disjoint and yet joint. Whatever the style, it did not go well with me. But then no news of any further work from him has been announced. I happened to read a few write-ups by him which were once again needless to say full of style, very much looking forward to reading more from him.
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