The White Tiger – Aravind Adiga

★★★★★

I heard a lot about the book before I bought it. But this book blew me away completely with its narration and characterization.

Balaram Halwai is a villager who moves to the city as a driver with his master. The story is set in seven letters that he writes to the prime Minister of China before visiting India. Very unusual and interesting. Balram’s life starts with limited ambitions in his village but slowly sets out to the Capital – Delhi.  As days pass, he does everything that is expected of a loyal servant including taking blame for an accident.

But the conflict in his mind about making it big and getting away from the pathetic conditions of drivers in Delhi  is narrated very well. He can make it big and he has option to get there – by killing someone. Will his conscience give in?

There are other characters which may catch your attention as they are very close to the real ABCD’s (If you did not know – American born confused Desis). But Aravind nails it with Balram’s character, cunning and ambitious,  waiting for an opportunity.  India through his eyes – Pomeranians, Honda City, Servant quarters, Cockroaches, Government babus, bribes, drunken driving, Johnny Walker black label, Call centers, Pick and Drop, speed limits, – is the real India through a common mans eyes.

It’s a chilling narration and gripping all the way till the end. Its hard to find such a book everyday. Pick your copy.

Trust Me – Rajashree

★★★★★

I always make it a point to buy new books by Indian authors. This was one of those impulsive buys.  Trust me is a love story set  against the  background of big bad bollywood.  Paro (Parvathi) is the  heroine in the novel. After a  heart break  and abortion, the small town girl tries to move on with her  life in Bombay.

She quits her job after sexual advances from her boss and joins a production house as an assitant.    Enter Rahul the side hero of the movie whom she is totally attracted to. Then starts the dilema of  whether she should trust someone again or not.

The Pakistani Bride – Bapsi Sidhwa

★★★★★

I had not read  Bapsi  Sidhwa’s work before. But as I was going through books in Crossword I saw the caption on  the book “A novel by the author of the book Ice-candy man”. I immediately picked it up.

It’s a good book with insights into the conservative lifestyle of tribal men in Pakistan. It’s the story of Zaitoon  who is adopted by Quasim and is brought up in the city. But on he fathers insistence she moves to the  mountains to a tribal lifestyle. The rest of the story is around how she is unable to survive the tough and hard  lifestyle of the tribes and decided to run away knowing that the punishment will be a death penalty if she is caught.

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

★★★★★

This is the best book I ever read. The book was written by MARK HADDON, writer of childern’s books.

The story is told through the eyes of 15 year old Christopher who is autistic math genius. He knows all prime numbers upto 7000 + and can do cubes of all these prime numbers in his mind. One night he discovers that his neighbours dog Wellington has been murdered and he sets out to find out who the culprit is. Upon the advice of his teacher he starts writing this murder mystery and during the course of his investigation he uncovers a secrets about his own family.

I simply loved so many thing that Cristhoper does which I could totally relate to, either because I have done it or have seen someone around me doing it.

1) Christopher loves maths because each problem has a definite solution and precisely the reason I love it. There has to be a solution to every problem and that should be the ideal solution.

2) Christopher has his good days and bad days depending on the color of the cars he sees everyday. Thats so true. Remember the red maruti van syndrome all of us went through.

3) Crishtopher needs to plan his schedule for each day and work according to the plan. I cannot work without a plan and if anything interrups my plan, I lose it completely.

4) Christopher needs to know what he is going to do on the weekend. I can totally undertsand, I mean you have to know what your plan is for the weekend right!

5) Christoher does not like vacations as they dont have a plan. I hate vacations where I dont have a plan to do something. Its not very productive otherwise you see.

6) Christopher loves murder mystery novels. We all do

7) Christopher really likes the The Hound of the Baskervilles. So do most of us.

A Thousand Splendid Suns

     ★★★★★

I read Kite Runner and was very impressed with Khaled Hosseini. I was looking forward to reading this book as this was his second book and a best seller. 

This is a story of Mariam and Laila who marry the same man against their wishes and circumstanes. This is set in the period where the Soviets left Afghanistan and the Taliban took over.  It’s a great book and definitely read it if you like the non-fiction sort of stuff.

I was angry and upset by the end, reading about the the way  women are  treated by Talibans. There have been numerous instances at breakfast, lunch or even coffee conversations where I took my turn to criticise the government in this country. But seriously I am extremely thankful for the freedom and opportunities I  have because of democracy.