The White Tiger

Plot: Balram is the White Tiger of the story - a title he earns by the virtue of being deemed the smartest boy in the village, a community deep in the 'Darkness' of rural India. Balram is the son of a rickshaw puller; his family is too poor for him to be able to finish school, and instead he has to work in a teashop as minion. Through first hand experience of things, Balram learns a lot of things about the world and later states that the streets of India provided him with all the education he needed. With time, luck and trickery he gets a break when a rich man hires him as a chauffeur, and takes him to live in Delhi. This city is a revelation. He becomes aware of the immense wealth and opportunity all around him, while knowing that he will never be able to gain access to that world of rich and successful. As Balram broods over his situation, he realizes that there is only one way he can become part of this glamorous new India.

Review: This first novel from the author is a sureshot revelation of the other-side of India which is still untouched of the much needed light of growth and development. Arvind Adiga, has no doubt shows us a part of the emerging India, which either we never ever wish to reach out otherwise, or we knowingly ignore it because we wish them to be there forever.At first the novel looks like a straightforward tale, albeit given a dazzling twist by the narrator's sharp and satirical eye for the realities of life for India's poor. ("In the old days there were 1,000 castes in India. These days, there are just two castes : Men with Big Bellies, and Men with small Bellies").

White Tiger is a brutal story - with no attempts at romaticism. The narrator is masterful and completely consistent. And before I end this piece, a final excerpt from The White Tiger which

"Go to Old Delhi....and look at the way they keep chickens there in the market. Hundreds of pale hens and brightly coloured roosters, stuffed tightly into wire-mesh cages...They see the organs of their brothers lying around them. They know they're next. Yet they do not rebel. They do not try to get out of the loop. The very same thing is done with human beings in this country."

For other creations of the author you may visit Arvind Adiga's website 

The Code Book

Book-Preview

Introduction: For thousands of years, world powers (ranging from the Kings & Queens to the present day Generals and Political Honchos) have relied on the efficient communication in order to govern their countries and command their armies. and at the same time they have been aware of the consequences of their messages falling into the wrong hands. And hence came the importance of encrypting the communication.

Today our communication ranges from not only voice and text but electronic too. Just consider the myhem it would create in our personal lives if we come to know that our cell-phone interactions have been intercepted and the e-mails which we have sent in sole belief that it would remain to be unread by anyone has been read by someone while it was in transit from one computer to the other. 

This book covers the entire growth of cryptography starting from the age of kings and queens to the current age of quantum cryptography. 

{In the days to come I would add the chapter by chapter abstract of this book.}

 

About the author:

Simon Singh 

Other Details of the Book:

ISBN 0-385-49532-3

Anchor Books