White Tiger

Sometimes good things come to you when you expect them the least.In this context that good thing was a book: The White Tiger.
I was never very fond of reading fiction. I can read newspaper editorials as they deal with current and real issues but i can't stand some lengthy, verbose and imaginary novel.
Then out of nowhere i found this novel. A novel that's real, hard hitting and compels you to think. To think about this country, its people, its culture and more importantly its future.
It is a success story of a village boy from darkness ( we are privileged ones to be born in lighten India) who comes to Bangalore and starts his own enterprise. Between two ends of the story of this boy, lies the real truth of India. India is not we see or perceive. It may be the country growing with more than 8% annually and may boast of being the single largest and secular democracy of the world but it's not the country that is presented in the pamphlets distributed to the foreign delegates and state guests. This book gives you better insight of the plight and suffering of the less glorified and neglected areas of the country. It mentions each and every aspect of the life of less privileged; from abject poverty to discrimination based on caste ; from indentured labor to dowry; from booth rigging to malfunctioning education system or health care system.
If we don't want another partition of this country in future, we shall understand that all that glitters is not India. India is much more than it. We have to bring those left outs in main stream before the widened gap between the haves and have-nots leads to another fragmentation of country. India is not all about malls and multiplexes, it's is also about huts and slums near railway tracks. India is not all about millions of dollars made out of outsourcing business, it's about people struggling to get square meal a day.
Let's not forget hardships of those 3/4th of us while enjoying the luxuries we get because we are privileged.