Everyone knows India as a developing and second highest populated country, an IT hub, a home of intellect people and entrepreneurs. But there is another part rather dark side of India. Poverty, slums, innocent poor, bribing politics, accidents, etc are those. Aravind Adiga, a brilliant writer, highlighted the dark areas of our developing country through Balaram Halwai. He deserved to win Booker’s prize.
In the book’s opening pages, Halwai begins to tell the Chinese Premier the story of his life. We are introduced to the poverty of rural Bihar, and the evil of the feudal landlords. After his father’s death, Balaram, as a typical rural guy, fled to urban for a job. There, he learnt driving with the help of taxi drivers. When luck and a ruthless eye for the main chance land him a driving job in the “Light” of New Delhi with one of the landlords’ families, the moral darkness only increases.
As a driver, the author describes how Indian drivers (few) are watching their boss activities and how they are misusing their owner’s car as a share cab. Yeah, its true actually, here in kolkata, there are shuttle between Sector V and airport, parkcircus and Sector V, Park Circus and Karnamoyee, etc. not only the private cars but also travel agency cars.
One rainy day in Delhi, he crushed the skull of his employer and stole a bag containing a large amount of money, capital that financed his Bangalore taxi business. That business — ferrying technology (call centre) workers to and from their jobs — depends, in turn, on keeping the police happy with the occasional bribe.
As a parable of the developing India, Balaram’s tale shows how a poor becoming an entrepreneur through roguish criminal and also the land of corruption, poverty and inequality. In short, A. A. highlights the dark side of India.
But don’t forget about poor people like Dr. Abdul Kalam. There are more tons of good people in India.
