The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga

The White Tiger is the cynical life story of Balram Halwai as he became a business owner in
Bangalore from a poor boy in Laxmangarh.

Summary of The White Tiger:

In a letter to the Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, Balram Halwai narrates the rags to riches story of
his eventful life, in Aravind Adigas The White Tiger. Balram describes an India that is in the
middle between archaisms and modernity, between poverty and prosperity and between virtue
and corruption.
In this grey India, Balrams life story begins in poverty in Laxmangarh where he is forced out of
school and into working at a teashop. To earn better, Balram decides to learn how to drive and
after he has leant, gets a job as the second servant for Mr. Ashok Sharma. His master Mr. Ashok
is kind to him, unlike his wife Pinky and his other masters the Stork, Mongoose and Mukesh Sir.
Balram is an honest servant at first, devoted entirely to serving his master. However, the corrupt
lives of his masters, their indulgent habits and lack of morals, soon pervades his simplicity and
Balram starts desiring a life akin to that of the rich and powerful. In a gruesome twist of Fate,
Balram murders his master Mr. Ashok, steals a large amount of money from him and escapes to
Bangalore with his nephew Dharam.
In this new city, a new Balram discards his old identity and assumes the identity of his old master
he becomes Mr. Ashok Sharma. He uses the stolen money to open a small taxi service. Making
good use of the business values he learnt from his master, Balrams business expands rapidly. At
the end of the book, he is a rich man owning a successful taxi service business with twenty six
vehicles and sixteen drivers.
The White Tiger, Adigas debut novel, has been widely acclaimed for its portrayal of India. It
won the Man Booker Prize in 2008. The novel was being adapted to film by Smuggler Films but
the production has been halted due to legal issues.

About Aravind Adiga:

Aravind Adiga is a young Indian writer, popular for his dark sense of humor and realistic
portrayal of a confused contemporary India.
His debut novel, The White Tiger, was followed by Between the Assassinations in 2008 which is
a series of short stories. In 2011, he published Last Man in the Tower, a story of the world of
Mumbai real estate.

Adigas writing style is simple and terse, devoid of difficult words and complex sentences. His
humor is dark and cynical. His stories do not hesitate to exhibit the gory underside of reality.
There is no gloss or glamour, but reality with all its multiplicities and chaos.
Aravind Adiga was born in Chennai and grew up in Mangalore. In 1990, his family migrated to
Sydney Austrailia. He pursued English Literature at Columbia University and later at Oxford.
He began his career as a journalist. Currently, he lives and works in Mumbai, India.

Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_White_Tiger
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aravind_Adiga
http://www.themanbookerprize.com/books/white-tiger
http://www.financialexpress.com/news/aravind-adigas-the-white-tiger-to-turn-into-film/448259
http://adiga-thewhitetiger.jimdo.com/