Democracy Indian style

Tues March 10th 09, 6.30am
Between the fizz and fun of fireworks, pyrotechnists do the odd bit of reading. My current paperback is The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga. This Booker prize-winning novel tells the story Balrham, an uneducated and impoverished Indian servant who escapes from the darkness of his squalid existence into the light of success, Indian style. Recognition, respect and riches become his but, in order to achieve them, he has to commit murder. There are some wickedly drawn insights in this delightfully dark and irreverent take on life in the world's largest democracy. One of them is when Balrham is chauffeuring his master, Mr Ashok, and his wife, Pinky Madam, to an important event. For amusement Mr Ashok asks him a few basic general knowledge questions. Laughing at his hopelessly wrong answers, Mr Ashok turns to Pinky Madam and sighs: 'See what democracy really means? Putting our glorious country in the hands of half-baked people like this.' Little does he know it but Mr Ashok's own life is very much in Balrham's hands. An excellent read.