Comments on: The White Tiger Redux

By: Nanda Kishore

Nanda Kishore — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 10:03:10 +0000

I wonder why none of our writers in English actually write stories anymore. They seem so hung up on social commentary all the time. But then story telling is a greater art, something you don’t learn by rote or ‘internalisation’. Explains why, for example, none of them seems interested in science fiction for example (rare exceptions notwithstanding). Great new ideas are hard to come by.

By: Anurag

Anurag — Sun, 02 Nov 2008 12:32:42 +0000

I am so happy that I am not the only indian enraged by the illogical conclusions made by Adiga !
Friends, I believe we are all astonished by the stupidity behind arguments such the furniture man one. I dont despute the fame of the Booker prize, but would The White Tiger have received the same fame it did, had it won an indian award ? The answer is no.
Don’t you think that so-called intellectuals are slaves of their own preposterous ideas ?

Secondly, the courier argument is right on spot. Whether it is the angadias, or any other delivery guy, their honesty (whether innate or driven by fear of law) cannot be taken as a proof of slavery. Of course, people like Adiga love to twist ideas and present them as the reality.

By: Medhini

Medhini — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 02:25:49 +0000

Long before ‘The white Tiger’ even surfaced, I was contemplating about this ‘Situation’ where the slave has cash in his hand but dutifully comes back to the master.
What if he runs! He can never come back, it’s not even the fear of police or jail. It’s the fear of loss of this normal monotonous but secure ‘Life’.

By: b

Sat, 25 Oct 2008 13:46:09 +0000

@atlantean,
You are absolutely right abt these intellectuals, just like ufo abductees these guys sure have had anal probing !!!!

By: Hemant

Hemant — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 05:07:47 +0000

I am quite amazed by Adiga’s mentality. In such circumstances (furniture) would happen to any person, the first thing would come to a ’sane’ person’s mind is “This delivery guy is simply being professional and he doesn’t take something which does not belong to him” or some one may even think “This guy is honest and trusted employee, so the boss has asked me to hand over the money to him”.

The last thing would (or probably will never come to any ‘good’ person’s mind) someone think is “This guy is so immersed in slavery that he can’t do any harm to his master”

Mr. Adiga seems to belong to last category!

By: Ashish

Ashish — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 17:45:03 +0000

I am interested in keeping tabs on all these “intellectual” guys and gals. Reason is I want to see how many of them turn with the tide as Indians slowly realize what hogwash the media has been feeding them, and shed their pseudosecularism. What the public loses psecism, how many “intellectuals” will remain psec, that is the question..

By: Atlantean

Atlantean — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 15:16:50 +0000

..the biggest intellectual celebrity is also the one with zero commonsense.

And atleast one psychological disorder. Arundhati Roy, for example, shows symptoms of Schizophrenia. It was confirmed when she talked of “an increasingly Hindu fundamentalist Indian state” on the Amarnath issue.

Most of our intellectuals somehow manage to see ghosts where there are none. Somewhat like all those UFO abductees who swear they were kidnapped by aliens and had all sorts of operations performed on them.

By: Sud

Sud — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 19:40:24 +0000

Adiga is easily the greatest writer to have graced our planet. I mean, like, the greatest ever.

The Bhooker price is just the first step, I will be the least oversurprised if he next takes the Nobel price for literature this year and every year after that in a row, and that too like, forever….

Further, look at the sheer range and depth and clarity and innovativeness and creativity and soul in shri shri adiga;s writing…aaaahhhhaaaaa….. moi also wants whatever it is he’s smoking….

I mean, exposing the ‘dark side of yindia’? Wow. what an original idea? Who ever, esp in the engliss litt ever conceived of a dark side to yindia, eh? sheer class and originality.

More later, for now, seems 1000s of copies of adiga’s books have been ordered (by the US UK embassies for featuring prominently in all univ libraries)…

By: Kumar

Kumar — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 19:21:44 +0000

Heard the term 'Angadias'? They are the courier or delivery guys who commute daily between Surat and Mumbai transporting diamonds worth crores. Been in operation for over 300 years, way before DHL or UPS etc. What keeps them honest?

By: Shyodha

Shyodha — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 18:23:58 +0000

Adiga clearly has â€˜borrowedâ€™ the premise of â€˜master-slaveâ€™ relationship from Adoorâ€™s Malayalam film â€˜Vidheyanâ€™ (1993). It was penned by Paul Zacharia, another writer heavily influenced by socialism.
Paul probably â€˜borrowedâ€™ his premise from some Russian novel knowing the Keralaâ€™s infatuation with communism. (There are more Stalins in Kerala than anywhere in the world.)

Someone should point Booker Hooker Jokers to the film â€˜Vidheyanâ€™.