The White Tiger. Done.

I didn't think twice about picking another book and started reading it. After contemplating about starting with it for a few weeks now, I really thought that I was ready for it. It was a thick book, that's the reason why I [even] tweeted about it; like, am I ready for this book?

So, I started.

But the introduction alone took about fifty or more pages. It, alone, started to bore me. I started to get confused about the characters of that book and those others that were written by the author. I am not saying it's not good though. It's just that I just didn't feel the need to even go through the introduction. But, I persevered. After a few days, I was done with it.

The first chapter of the book.

I read several pages then stopped. The characters are confusing as well as the plot and the setting. Yet, they're saying that this is one of the best books of all times. I think I'm just not ready for it. I just can't see the point of reading that book... at least for now.

One Chance... The Last

Here is a strange fact: Murder a man and you feel responsible for his life – possessive, even. You know more about him than his father and mother; they know his faetus, but you know his corpse. Only you can complete the story of his life.

Considering how poor they were, Balram wanted a change. He wanted his life to be better. He wanted to be an entrepreneur; and he became an entrepreneur.

How, how I wanted to write about what he did… what he did to become one, because this would be my last post about the book.

I don’t know whether to justify or crucify him for what he did to change his life. He was a poor man. He just didn’t drive; he became a driver. He cleaned his master’s feet. He cooked his master’s meals. He was made to confess a crime he didn’t commit. He saw what it was like to be rich and not like to live that kind of life. He felt how it was like to eat in cozy restaurants but crave for street foods. He knows how a bag with a million rupees inside it looks like. He witnessed crimes committed bloodless within the four walls of the parliament. He know how it felt to drive a Honda City. He saw an opportunity.

After all, his granny said he was a white tiger. Only one chance to have for every generation. And he only had one chance, and maybe the last.

Wouldn’t you have done the same if you were the white tiger that your granny says you are?

Beauty

Truth to be told, I finished this book several days ago. One or two days short of a week maybe. But I feel like there is a lot that I wanted to talk about the book.

They remain slaves because they can't see what's beautiful in this world.

Aravind quoted Iqbal.

I don't know whether to believe this though. About a week or more ago, I read about Filipinos being treated as slaves in a nursing home that was raided by the authorities in the States. These people were allegedly convinced that they will have a decent job in the States if they pay something like $8,000 for the processing of their visas. After getting there, these people were made to work almost 24 hours a day with very low or no pay at all.

So, does this mean that they remain slaves because they can't see the beauty in this world? They were forced into it. Not like in the story, it's their caste that made them slaves. It's like it was their destiny to be where they were supposed to be. Balram was born to sweet makers and that is his caste, and that is his fate. But as his grandmother told him, he is a white tiger. So, maybe Balram was able to see the beauty in this world, that's why he fought. He fought to change his fate. He fought to change his destiny. And he succeeded. He became an entrepreneur.

In that nursing home, I think those people will now see the beauty in this world. The home was raided and they were freed. Like Balram, they can now work their way out of their fate. I wouldn't say it's destiny though. Because they weren't destined to be slaves in that home.

Drive

Halwai. Balram came from this caste family of sweet-makers, but he wanted to become a driver. So, after working at a tea shop with his brother, Kishan, he decided to learn to drive. For three hundred rupees from his granny Kunna, and a promise of sending money from his wages once hired, he learned. But the taxi driver told him:

"It's not enough to drive. You've got to become a driver."

And he did become a driver. For a family who was also from their town.

Not only did he do tasks as a driver. He massages their feet, bathes their dog, cleans the house, sweeps the floor, everything that he can do when he’s not driving.

I think half of Balram was spent being a driver. Although at about ten years old, when the school principal went to his class for inspection, he was told that he is a white tiger. That he is different from the rest. He can get a future if only he try. But we try, don’t we? Then we need opportunity. How many of us gets the opportunity? And when opportunity is there, how many of us see it? How many of us let it pass?

Balram’s life as a servant hasn’t change. I am past half of the book and still he was a driver. Although at the time of writing the narrative, he was already an entreprenuer.

I want to find out what drove him to become one… how he drove himself to become one. How he drove to get to that road that a miserly servant like him from a miserable village seldom have the rare opportunity to be on.

The White Tiger

The next day I went to the bank - the one that had a wall made of glass. I saw myself reflected in the glass panes - all in khaki. I walked back and forth in front of the bank a dozen times, just gaping at myself.

If only they had given me a silver whistle, I would have been in paradise!

Kishan came once a month to see me.

Tom's There

Nearing the end of Huck Finn's adventure, I was surprised that Tom Sawyer was part of the story.  Yeah, i know that they were friends.  He was actually in the first part, too, when they were planning to rob and do some things on people.

I actually wrote about Tom's influence on Huck's decisions and it became even more evident when they were together and had to decide on things.  I think that most of the time, Huck's decisions were wiser than Tom's, but just the same, it was Tom's that prevailed for the simple reason that Huck believed Tom knows everything.

The twist at the end was really unique though.  It was really unpredictable.  I should say that one thing that I sort of didn't like about the story was how it evolved on a pack of untruths (if there is such a word).  Come to think of it, the journey or adventure of Huckleberry Finn started with faking his own death.  One untrue story after another after another after another.

I guess this is the only way the adventures could be put together in one story.  And I believe that it's the only way to make the story work.  But it really takes a good imagination and an excellent creativity and an amazing talent to piece them all together.

THE END

THE ADVENTURES OF HUCKLEBERRY FINN

MARK TWAIN