I said goodbye to The White Tiger last night. He’s been talking to me when I’ve been drifting to sleep over the past few weeks.
I had become the audience that Balram’s (aka The White Tiger) addressing. It’s the sign of a clever narrative. In the absence of the intended listener, His Excellency Wen Jiabao, I’ve been taken into his confidence and held in the relished suspense. I’ve become accustomed to his voice – because it jumps
straight out of the page.
Aravind Adiga’s novel is possibly not the best night time reading because it revs you right up again. It takes you into the hustle and bustle of Bangalore – and the words are audible: you can hear Balram in your head.
The language twists may take a little getting used too – as does the strange mix between the normal and the obscene, the eloquent and the brutally blunt – but Balram certainly comes to life. It’s hard to work out whether he’s a lovable rogue – or a selfish criminal – but I wanted to listen to him either way.
And I wanted to hear his story. Even if it cut a little close to the bone at times –
– because this is the another particularly clever bit: ‘The White Tiger’ may have taken me to unknown places but it also made some pretty astute comments on the way that I live. It didn’t just open my eyes to a new place; it also opened them to one that that I was already familiar with.
As a western reader, reading ‘The White Tiger’ can be both illuminating and insightful. It’s an opportunity to see and hear things that we wouldn’t typically be privileged with. It’s an avenue into a whole different world and an alternative perspective – but not one that we’re allowed to indulge in.
I may have started in the ‘we don’t realise how good we have it’ camp but I rapidly absconded – because I don’t think that Adiga is looking for my sympathy or even my empathy. I’m not sure that Balram would consider me to be in any position to judge the world that he is portraying – or even the actions that he describes –
‘The White Tiger’ isn’t just about exposing a different way of life and system of being to the Western reader: it’s also about asking them to look at their own behaviour and their own judgement systems.
It’s not about glorifying or glamourising or sentimentalising India’s poor: it’s about bringing people to life and creating a voice – with the learning spanning the continents.
Tags: reading the world
