Summary of Chapter 8

At the beginning of the last chapter, Balram explains how he maps out a plan to leave Delhi without being detected. He wants to take the train to Bangalore, but not the direct route, because is afraid that the police could see him.  His plan is to travel back home in a kind of zigzag route. 

The next thing to do was to wake up Dharam, who sleeps on the bed in Balrams room. Then they start their way to the train station. 

On the third day of travelling, Balram was at Hyderabad. While waiting for the next train he wants to buy a tea. When entering the shop he recognizes a wanted photo hanging on the wall showing him.  

When Balram and Dharam arrived at Bangalore, Balram starts to create his own taxi company with the name “White-Tiger-Driver”. The first months, he drives the car, later he hires new employees driving on his behalf. . Balram changes his name into “Ashok Sharma”, because of his illegal deals with corrupt police officers. As his drivers are working without a license, Balram appoints American people to drive the taxis.

 One day, one of his drivers had an accident with a boy on a bike. The boy died and his brother was a witness. Balram protected his driver in front of the police and again makes an illegal deal. So the police said that nobody was responsible for the accident. Balram felt guilty and went to the family of the boy to give them some cash. At this moment, Balram thinks about what happened with his family the last time.

While Balram thinks about his future, he explains to Mr. Jiabao, that in his opinion the end of the white man will come soon and in 20 years the colored and yellow people will rule the world. 

At least he himself makes plans for his own future. He does not want to run his taxi- business until he is old. He prefers a future in the real estate business, because he expects that many people from the United States will move to Bangalore building their new homes and offices in his home town.

 

At the end of the book, Balrams says, while closing his letter to the premier, that he was successful in breaking out of the Indian coop and for him personally it is the best experience ever not to be a servant anymore.

 I found and interesting link about the city Hyderabad,where Balram waits for the train....

Hyderabad-India

Here is an example for a police poster....

Police Poster

What I like/dislike in this Chapter?

I liked the decision of Balram, to travel away from his life as a servant, but that he killed Mr. Ashok was not good. What I don’t understand is, why Balram is proud of his own police poster. In my opinion I would be afraid of it.

I think it was not fair, that Balram defends his driver. The family is shocked, that one son died, but the police did nothing to punish the driver. This attitude is unbelievable.

 I´m not sure, why Balram has the opinion, that the yellows and colored people rein the world in 20 years. 

At the end of this Book “ The White Tiger”, I’m proud of Balram that he breaks out of the Indian coop, because not much servants can do that. He never give up, to fulfill his dream, to have a new life in another business.

 I liked the book "The White Tiger" from Aravind Adiga very much, because it showed the other sides of the life and that some people have dreams, which they want to fulfill. I also learned much about the indian country and his good and bad sides.

I hope, you enjoyed my reading diary.

Tim

 

Summary of Chapter 7

At the beginning of the chapter, Balram talks about the rich people in Delhi. They became fat, because the consuming too much food so they need to try to lose weight. On the other side, having millions of poor people, suffering from not having enough food to survive.. Every night the masters make an evening walk, while the servants stand around them with a bottle of water. There Balram meets the Vitiligo-Lips and asks him for a girl with golden hair.

Then he explains Mr. Jiabao different ways how to earn some extra money from the master. For example, when the master is not around he can siphon petrol from the car with a tube and a funnel and sell it. Or you can go to a corrupt mechanic if his master orders him to repair the car and gave him some money for work beforehand. Balram tells that he collects some money by doing these ashaming things. 

On a Sunday afternoon, Mr. Ashok tells Balram, that he doesn’t need him today, so Balram goes to the servant dormitory. There he meets the man again and gives him the money for the girl. When the man counts the money while standing in the parking lot, Balram tells him, that the girl is for himself and not for his master. The man gets proud of Balram, because he shows some ambition.

Then they drive to a hotel in South Extension and the man to the manager and say that his friend wants to have a golden-haired woman. He gives him the money and after that the manager takes Balram upstairs. The Vitiligo-Lips leaves the Hotel and drives away.

The Manager shows him the room with the girl. They enter the room and the girl sits on the bed. Balram sits next to her and they talk a little bit. Then they start to have sex. But after a few minutes Balram yells and starts to slap her, because she has dyed hair. The manager enters the room and Balram grabs him to get his money back. The situation ends with Balram leaving the hotel with a scratched and bruised face.

When Balram drives back to his home, he notices that somebody sits on his bed. It was Mr. Ashok. They talk a little bit and Mr. Ashok tells him, that he will give him another room to live like he lives. Mr. Ashok doesn't like his life any longer and wants to change some things. He starts his new life by eating some food of the servants together with Balram.

In the second part of the chapter Balram tells, that mongoose comes back to Delhi again to visit Mr. Ashok.  They talk about the divorce and he tells Mr. Ashok, that a divorced man in India isn´t respected. Mr. Ashok has to remarry another girl and not the Nepali. The mongoose gives him a bag full of money and says that Mr. Ashok has to go to the minister’s assistant, because the minister needs a lot of money for his election campaign.. While they wait in the traffic jam to drive back to the apartment, Balram gives a rupee to a child which sells some things to the car drivers. The Mongoose and Mr. Ashok get very angry about that, but then they are going on to talk about the divorce.

The next day, Balram drives the Mongoose and Mr. Ashok to the ministers assistant, to deliver the money bag, after that they have lunch in a hotel. Then Balram drives the Mongoose back to the railway station.

One day Balram drives Mr. Ashok to the Imperial Hotel. He thinks about his situation and about Mr. Ashok. After Mr. Ashok gets out of the car and goes to the hotel, Balram drives to the train station. He thinks about to steal the red bag with the money and go somewhere. But then he thinks about his family and what will happen to them if he would steal this bag full of money from his master.

On Sunday Balram has a free day and drives to the red-light district by bus. There are lots of people and some of them want to sell some things. He comes to a secondhand book market where many booksellers have their stalls. He reads in some books until he meets a Muslim who tells him something about poems and the Urdu language. After this conversation Balram goes to the older part of Delhi and sees that the city gets older and older and the air gets worse every day. Later he sees a buffalo, going his own way down the street, with no human on his side. Then a strange thing happened: In his imagination, the buffalo talks to Balram and says him, that his Cousin Kusum was kicked to death.

The next morning, Balram and Mr. Ashok sit in the car talking. Then Balram tells him, that he is going to marry a girl. Thereupon Mr. Ashok gives him one hundred rupee, with the statement, that Balram is a good member of the family. Mr. Ashok asks him, weither he marries in Laxmangarh and that he will come along at the wedding.

The next morning Balram walks out of Buckingham B onto the main road. He goes straight ahead into the slums. The construction workers live there in bad affairs. They build the malls and homes for the rich people. When he comes back to his room, Dharam the son of his aunt sits in his room with a letter from Kusum. Balrams aunt wrote that he is a bad guy because he does not send money to his family. She also wrote, that she found a wife for him to marry.. The aunt would send the wife to him if he wouldn't come home. He also had to care about Dharam. When Balram reads the letter, he gets angry and slaps Dharam.  Balram tells Mr. Ashok, that his family sends him a helper and Mr. Ashok accepts it.

One day Mr. Ashok gives Balram a day off. He asks Mr. Ashok, weither he can visit the zoo with Dharam. In the zoo they see the animal which gets born only once in every generation - the white tiger. Balram analyzes his movements and later he falls into faint. That evening, Balram wants Dharam to write a letter to his aunt Kusum on his behalf. He wants to tell her what happened at the zoo, as well as saying goodbye to his grandmother.

One morning Balram drives Mr. Ashok from one bank to the other, because he needs money for the red bag. On their way back, Balram stops the car. He says that there is a problem with one of the tires. He checks at it asks Mr. Ashok to get out of the car to help him. At first Mr. Ashok do not wants to leave the car, but after a while he opens the door. He goes down on his knees to help Balram fixing the tire. Balram takes the bottle that he brought along and hits Mr. Ashok on his head. He drags the dead body into the bushes, jumps into the car and drives to the train station, where Dharam waits for him.

What I like/dislike in this chapter?

I was surprised, when Balram told, which methods the servants have to earn some extra money. Here you can see the dark side of India. Balram described bad things like violence, dealing with drugs and the prostitution. I can understand, why Balram got angry, when he read the letter of kusum. But it´s not fair to his Dharam,because of this letter. I first thought,that Balram steals the money bag at the first time, but I didn´t expected an end of this chapter like this. Balram killed his master in a bad way, just with a bottle. It´s also unbelievable, that Balram is not sure to get away with Dharam together. I think that Balram didn´t made a right decision, to kill Mr. Ashok, because I had the feeling that the connection between them got better and better.

I found an interesting link about the divorced people in india and how they get treaten...

Divorced People in India 

Here I found an nice picture from the bookmarket, where Balram talked with a muslim...

That´s another picture of the red-light district in india. There dominates the prostitution..

 

Have a nice holiday,

see you

Tim

Summary of Chapter 6

One morning Mr. Ashok wants Balram drive him to the Sahara Mall. At the mall, Balram wonders, what Mr. Ashok was doing all the time in the mall while he waits. When he comes back, Balram has to drive him to the Sheraton Hotel.  While driving to the hotel, Balram notices how Delhi changed this night. He notices all these new hotels he will never enter, because of his caste. When they arrive at the hotel, Mr. Ashok gets out of the car and Balram joins the man with the skin disease, who sits next to the hotel. They talk about servants and how long they are useful.

Then the microphone of the hotel, calls Balram, because Mr. Ashok wants to leave the hotel. He steps out of the building, with a woman in his arm. They drive to the PVR Saket, a large cinema located in the heart of Delhi. While Balram sits under a tree and waiting for his master, a woman comes along and asks him for three rupees. He tells her that he is not one of the rich people and says that she should leave him alone. Later a knife-grinder comes setting- up his stall right next to the tree. Balram gets angry, when the man starts to work on his machine. When the movie was over, Balram drives Mr. Ashok and the Nepali back to the apartment.

The next morning, Balram wonders why Mr. Ashok does not call him. He takes the elevator to the apartment and rings the bell. When he hears some noise, Balram puts his ear close to the door and hears a conversation between the two. He finds out, that the Nepali was former mistress of Mr. Ashok. Then Mr. Ashok gets a call, for a meeting with the minister. The Nepali wants to take a taxi back.

In the evening Balram has to drive Mr.Ashok from one bank to another, to collect money from the machines. Then they drive to a big house in the Ashoka Road. Mr. Ashok takes the bag full of money, gets out of the car and enters the minister`s bungalow. After a while Mr. Ashok enters the car together with a minister`s assistant. They drink some whiskey and talk about the divorce from Pinky Madam. Mr. Ashok tells the assistant, that he was always faithful towards his wife.

At the end of the chapter they drive to the Greater Kailash where the assistant gets out of the car coming back together with a girl.  Balram needs to drive all three to a hotel. . After a half an hour Mr. Ashok comes back and Balram drives him to his apartment. Mr. Ashok looks really ill.

What I like/dislike?

I found it interesting, how Mr. Ashok changed his behavior,but i´m not sure,why he changed it. I can understand the reaction of Balram, when he just relaxed a little and then somebody annoyed him. I thinks it´s normal, that he get angry in this situation. I dont like the part, when the assistent and Mr. Ashok take a girl to have some fun. I think thats definitely not fair compared to the women. I really dont like,what the man with the skin disease said about older servants and how they get treaten. There you can see the, that these servants have an inhuman life.

I found and interesting link about the "Greater Kailash"... 

 The Greater-Kailash 

Here is a nice picture of the Sheraton Hotel in Delhi.....

 See you,

Tim